Stocking Stuffer

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drake_icon.gif ellinka_icon.gif

Scene Title Stocking Stuffer
Synopsis On the Invierno, Drake and Ellinka discuss mistakes and gifts.
Date December 23, 2008

The Invierno, off the coast of New York City


"You don't like being on the water, do you?" Drake's heavy footsteps approach Ellinka from behind, watching the blonde sniper hunched over the railing at the aft-side of the Invierno. He sidesteps her at the last minute, moving to join her with his arms resting on the ice-frosted rail, eyes focused out towards the hazy brown-gray skyline of New York City far beyond the rough water.

Ellinka says nothing, her gaze focused lower, down to the churning water; churning like the pit of her stomach. "We won't be here long enough for you to get your sea-legs, just a couple more hours." His tone remains light, conversational in an odd way. He hardly knows her, they worked out of different regions of Europe, but in some ways they're like blood. They are going to be the survivors of a global holocause that they're engineering.

There's some companionship in that notion.

"Do you know why we're out here?" Drake looks sidelong to Ellinka, watching the way the cold wind blows at her short hair, the way she ignores him as if she were some slouching statue. "Do you know why Hans asked me to take you out here?" That question gets her attention, and her eyes soon come to meet Drake's with a silence that somehow manages to betray her frustration.

"He's worried you're still beating yourself up over what happened in Brussels." Drake raises one brow, then lets his eyes wander away from hers, back to the shifting horizon. "You can't hold yourself responsible, not forever."

"I'm not." Her words come out clipped and terse, and she quickly looks away when Drake does, a scowl hanging on her lips, creasing otherwise youthful features. Drake's response is a quiet shrug of his shoulders, listening to the sound of the crew working on the open deck of the freight ship and the sound of the sea. Letting Ellinka listen to her own words.

"Foss was one of my men." Drake's words don't earn that withering stare again, but it stirs up the same emotions in Ellinka, "I know you two were close." Pushing out a sigh, Drake leans up and off of the railing, leather-gloved fingers sliding back and forth over the icy railing where his arms once rested.

Ellinka remains silent, head bowed and eyes now half-lidded. "Anyone could have made the mistake you did." Those eyes close fully at his words, "We all take these risks when we're in the field. Foss knew them. You know them." His hands slip from the railing, finding the pockets of his vest.

He isn't sure where to go, what to say, or how to say it. Drake was never good at this sort of thing, but he understands why Hans asked it of him. While he may not know Ellinka, they share a common bond in a dead man. "You never answered my question." He finally stares, turning his back to the sniper to not see the sharp stare she affords him. "Why we're here." It's not the question she thought he was referring to.

"Kazimir," Drake says with a crooked smile, "He's giving us a Christmas present." There's nothing but sarcasm and humor in Drake's voice, and all those ideas are absent from Ellinka as she sluggishly moves from the railing.

Drake turns at the sound of her footsteps, one blonde brow raised, "Have you ever driven a tank before?"


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December 23rd: Roundup

Previously in this storyline…
Roundup


Next in this storyline…
Mysterious Ways

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December 23rd: A Proposed Experiment
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