Some Gave All

Participants:

vf_elisabeth_icon.gif vf_kaylee_icon.gif

Scene Title Some Gave All
Synopsis And those who didn't are still reeling.
Date January 16, 2012

Hospital Roof


Everyone who made it through has some damage. Ruiz and Ygraine are being treated, she's not sure if Ling will actually remain at the hospital though it seems to Liz that she needs to. Other people are hurt, perhaps a little less badly. Elisabeth herself finally figured out that her hearing is shot while they were stitching up the knife wound in her thigh… they said in the emergency room that it wouldn't be permanent. But she has the dubious pleasure of learning what Conrad Wozniak had once learned. That even without her ears, she can hear.

Standing on the rooftop of the hospital, she leans on the railing and looks out over the city street, teeming with lights and cars and noise and people. Two months underground without her ability has taken a larger toll than she even realized. Her heart beats fast in anxiety. She feels exposed.

And worse… the guilt of not being able to save them all rides her hard.

Had she really expected to? She has to admit that no… she didn't. But she'd hoped. Ever the optimist, right? … Tears slide, slow and silent, down her face as she calls to mind the people that she met in the Hub who didn't make it through the portal. Despite the intellectual knowledge that they did what they could, the names and faces will haunt her. So many she only knew by face to nod hello to, children she taught a little piano to. And so many others whose names she did know.

Aislinn. Lynette. Rickham. Dave. Bowie. Peyton. Brenda. Steve. Hana. Gillian. Peter. … Edward. …Eileen. … Richard. …

Her mind whirls with the names of the dead and shies away from the last thing she saw before the portal — the cloud of shadows that was once a man. Instead, she focuses on strings. Edward's strings.

“Beating yourself up about it ain’t gonna help anyone,” the voice behind her is familiar, the fact that it is responding what is in Liz’ head is new. Kaylee Thatcher leans on the railing next to her, offering a bit of a strained smile. The wound that travels down the entirety of one side of the telepath’s face is now stitched and bandaged. “We all went into that knowin’ that we might not make it, Liz. Some of us more than others.” It was pretty obvious when the woman was given a shot she had been infected.

Leaning there on the railing, a familiar medallion rests around her neck. “Though, I think we all have regrets.” Kaylee grimaces at a thought. “However, we do the others a disservice if we dwell on their deaths, instead of celebrating their lives. If it were not for them… well… we’d all be dust and bone.” Literally.

Looking toward the telepath with just a turn of her head, Elisabeth says wearily, "I know. But it's hard right now to celebrate." She studies Kaylee's face and nods just a little, randomly thinking they'd done a good job with the cut. It'll still scar, but it could have been much worse. "I'm sorry that your father didn't make it to the portal, Kaylee," she murmurs. She truly believed until the last moment that Edward might still be able to get there.

Letting out a deep breath in a long sigh, she looks back out over the energetic, living city. "I hope… " She trails off. What does she hope? "I hope that you have the chance in this world to be everything you ever dreamed," she says finally, a small smile pulling one corner of her lips upward. "Your father… I cannot imagine he was an easy man to be around, much less to love…. But I honestly believe he did his best by you." Despite her personal opinion of the man himself, she cannot fault him for that. And she's glad that Kaylee is among those who made it.

"You said something about… they've set you up to be a cop?" she asks curiously as the thought occurs to her.

Clearly, the telepath has her own mourning to do still, as her jaw works at the mention of her father. “Yeah, well. I have a feelin’ he knew,” she offers after a moment. “I thought the promises he made were too damn good to be true.” There may be a little anger there too.

A glances goes to the woman next to her, just a brief one. “His idea of doing best by me… “ Eyes roll upward as if her old man might be up there looking down. “Mom told me this story about her and a hot shot lawyer, Ray, she was the secretary for. Married guy, that she had an affair with. Got pregnant and he kicked her to the curb. For all my life I thought that.” The young blonde gives a humorless bark of laughter. “Tried to talk to me, but the bomb happened right near where he worked. Thought, good. Bastard was dead…” All emotion falls off her features.

“Then the virus happened and he shows up, says I gotta go with him,” Kaylee lets out a long sigh. “Everything my momma told me had been a lie. Course, he still wouldn’t really tell me the truth either.” Finally, Kaylee give a shrug of her shoulders. “His methods sucked ass, but yet… here I am.” Those last words catch in her throat and she falls silent, with brows furrowed and lips pressed tight.

After a moment, Kaylee finally is able to answer the other woman with a shake of a head. “Me a cop? Naw. My counterpart.” She gives a bit of a sniff and brushes a thumb at the corner of her eye. Nodding towards the busy city beyond. “She got caught using her ability in a way that could be considered illegal. Demsky… Judah?” The telepath give a bit of a shrug of her shoulders as she tries to remember the name. “Caught her and set her straight.Just passed her detectives exam accordin’ to what I read.”

Elisabeth listens as Kaylee talks about Edward Ray, sympathy crossing her features as the blonde gives the short version of her life. "Sometimes I wonder if Edward Ray would know the truth if it up and slapped him in the face," she comments quietly, shaking her head. "For whatever the thought is worth to you, I do think he tried in his own inept ridiculous ways to make sure you were safe. Even from him, maybe." She shrugs a little. "I didn't say he was any good at any of it. But… " She hesitates and then reaches out a hand to grip Kaylee's shoulder very briefly and then releases it, remembering that Kaylee in her world wasn't much of a contact person. "I wish that I could give you more about him. Tell you something that would make you feel better." But she doesn't exactly have a lot to offer in that regard.

Her eyes fall as Kaylee shifts and the light catches the medallion around her neck. She's curious, but it doesn't seem the time or place to ask about it so she just reminds herself to ask if she can see it later. She nods slightly to the information about Demsky and has to grin just a little. "Demsky's good people. We'll have to be careful, you and me… if we go and get ourselves hauled in for anything, they might yank our alternate selves in on the situation," she observes mildly. "Although… if I remember this timeline correctly, I think the other me is in the process of transferring to the FBI." She shrugs a bit. "I have no idea. I didn't even get past reading the identity they set me up with. It makes me laugh every time I see the name." Cranston. She snickers. He'd laugh his ass off.

“Well, Leanna Edwards ” yeah that didn’t pass her by “ is woman with interviews at a few bars and applications to a few colleges. Stuff I was doing before everything happened,” She gives Liz a grin. “Could be worse, they could of decided to point me towards stripper. Make momma really proud all those dance lessons goin’ to good use.”

Letting out a long sigh, Kaylee stands and looks back towards the hospital door. “I’m worried about Mateo,” she says softly. “Worried about everyone really. But him… he was my best friend’s brother. I even had a bit of a crush, before he found his Lynette.” The words trail off as she fall quiet again. “Never really been where he was… Well, besides Peter, but it wasn’t the same there.” Brows furrow a little at the last memory she had of the man. “All I ever did was use and discard men.”

Elisabeth has to laugh at the name. "Well, at least we're not in danger of forgetting our names," she comments in amusement. And then she barks out a real laugh. "Lord… don't tell Isabelle you're considering that. She might open another bar just for you!"

But then the conversation turns more serious and Liz nods, her brows coming to a frown above her nose. "Yeah… He can't try that again, I don't think." The thought in her head that she absolutely will not allow that man to die just for a portal home is powerful. "I knew his heartbeat didn't sound right when he made the practice attempt. But I had no idea how badly it would tax him." She shakes her head. "Had your world not been a flat-out death sentence anyway, we never would have tried again." It's not in her to be that selfish. "We just… basically had nothing to lose," she said softly. "Die trying or die waiting."

She looks away toward the street. "I don't… really know if you intend to keep in contact with any of us. But… I'd really like it if you did," she admits quietly. "In my world… you would have been my child's aunt. You and your siblings had decided that you were going to be family no matter what."

Elisabeth clears her throat, pushing back the memory of meeting them. "Don't feel any pressure though. I know … it's weird and strange here. In more ways than one."

Leaning back against the railing, Kaylee glances at Liz. “Richard, right?” She did hear that conversation. Fingers move to fiddle with the necklace, her expression growing distant. “Dad and I talked about him once. I think he wanted me to broach the subject, since I lost my blood siblings, but — ” Brows furrow a little. “He had David there. He had his real family, so I never said anything to him.” Regrets.

“I don’t think any of us plan to drift too far. I will probably stick close to Kain and Mateo.” There is a bit of a smirk there. “Besides, we all kinda have a connection, having survived all of that. So, yeah, I’ll keep in touch.” She glances out over her shoulder at the city.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” she admits. “I spent too many years stuck in the Hub.”

Elisabeth nods slightly to the connection, though she murmurs, "That probably means a little less to some than others. I'm… a little worried about how Elspeth will be. I wouldn't honestly blame her if she hated us… for not going just a few days sooner." That they couldn't have is kind of irrelevant — Liz has a deep sympathy for the wish itself. "But I really hope at least some of us stay in contact." She has a great many of her own regrets…

She smiles just a bit and nods toward the pendant. "Which saint?"

Angling a look down, Kaylee’s brows furrow as she thinks on the question. Who was it? “I think I heard Richard say Saint Jude?” She glances over at Elisabeth with a curious look, since she herself did not know saints. “It was his,” she admits ruefully. “Ling managed to save it. Why? I am not sure.” Brows furrow in thought. “I don’t think any of us expected him to do that.

Realizing what she is saying, she offers an apologetic look. “So…. what is it that they set you up to do here?”

St. Jude. "Patron saint of lost causes and desperate cases," Elisabeth murmurs. She wonders for a moment who gave it to him. The one she'd had made was St. Nicholas and St. Joan … repentant thieves and martyrs, though she preferred to think of Joan's aspect as guardian of soldiers, admittedly. Both fit. She pushes the thought away. "I've seen him do it once before," she admits in a whisper as she looks out over the city. Keeping Kaylee from hearing the thought about patron saints… or the image that is forever burned into her mind of that day… isn't exactly possible. Now it has a companion image. And they both literally make her tremble. Panic sends her power humming along her nerve endings and surging into the air around her, the low-level buzzing just at hearing range.

Liz grimaces faintly. "I'm sorry." She clenches her hands tight around the metal rail they're leaning on, sending it humming like a tuning fork. But she forces her mind sideways and struggles to answer even while it's happening.

"Uhm… there's the name of a sound engineer and a club that I'm supposed to interview at. So.. maybe waiting tables, but… I suspect Tam is nudging me to follow old dreams, long forgotten since Midtown," she murmurs. "I don't know if I'm good enough to make a go of music, but… I can't do what I'm good at here. The other me already has that job." She forces a small smile.

“Won’t know till you try,” Kaylee offers brightly leaning towards the other woman, though there is a false sort of brightness to it. “Seems like the best time to give it a shot, at least. If you fall flat on your face, who is gonna know?” Except maybe the telepath herself.

Straightening, she touches the side of her face, gingerly. It’s obvious it is bothering her a little. “You going to just stay in this place? Or you going to find another way?” Kaylee turns thoughtful, hand falling away from the bandages. “Wonder if dad is still alive in this world. Might be your best bet if you still want to get to your world.”

Elisabeth isn't hard to read, especially right now. She's grateful for the attempt at being supportive, and she starts to speak as Kaylee muses aloud about her father's whereabouts in this world. Moab prison pops into her head, though she does make a belated attempt to mask it by saying aloud, "You should ask down in the emergency room if there's a paramedic named Abby who works here," she says softly. "She should be able to heal that with no scarring."

She's not sure that Abby's still a paramedic or she might be a nurse — her memory of what she knew in this timeline isn't perfect on when things were happening because the information came from 2019, but she thinks it's close enough. Unless things have changed, of course, which is a thought that rather makes her feel pretty uneasy.

"We're going to keep looking," Liz replies definitely. "It just may take a while. We've all really got to stay off the radar here as much as we can. Proof of alternate timelines and shit are the last thing Arthur Petrelli should be getting his hands on."

“Good,” Kaylee states to that last, not really commenting on the first, even if she touches the bandage again. Only briefly. “It would be a shame to have everyone fight so hard to get you home, only to have you stop at the first destination.”

She gives the woman a wink and pushes away from the railing. “I’m gonna go check on Mateo. Get some rest, Liz.” Kaylee calls as she walks away. ”Your gonna be a momma before you know it, then it’s all downhill from there.”

Elisabeth's blue eyes are worried, though she attempts to shoot a smile in return. "Just… keep your eyes peeled for Suits, Kaylee. Stay close to Mateo." It's not paranoia when the threat is real… and Tamara and Colette had been looking exceedingly nervous on that bus and adamant that we needed to be gone quickly. "I know Tam… she's covered our asses as well as she can. But we need to get our folks settled for a little while someplace that won't draw attention."

Contingencies. Her brain has begun working on those because right now… it's the only thing she can control — how prepared we are if trouble comes knocking. And plans and organizing help her anxiety some. "I'll see you in a while."

“Yeah. Yeah,” Kaylee waves it away, totally not seeming to see there being anything to worry about. This wasn’t her world’s telepath. “They won’t know I’m there, if I don’t want them to remember.” She seems weirdly confident about this.

Pulling open the door, Kaylee glances back at Liz. “The people I trust is the people I came through Mateo’s portal with.” So she clearly doesn’t have the same faith in the seer. “See you in a few,” she adds before letting the door shut behind her.


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