Participants:
| Scene Title | Teenage Girls |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. The details of the plan for Molly to locate Rupert Carmichael leave the girl angry at her adoptive father and his colleague. |
| Date | October 26, 2010 |
Battery Park City is a 92-acre planned community at the southwestern tip of lower Manhattan. The land upon which it stands was created on the Hudson River using millions of pounds of dirt and rocks excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center and certain other construction projects, as well as from sand dredged from New York Harbor off Staten Island. The neighborhood, which is the site of the World Financial Center along with numerous housing, commercial and retail buildings, is named for adjacent Battery Park.
The benches in Battery Park are often used as a lunch time destination for people working nearby, as it offers a view of the water. And on days like today, uncharacteristically warm given the proximity of Halloween, it's where Matt Parkman has brought his adopted daughter for lunch. Not many fourteen year-old girls can say they're personally chauffeured by a top-notch security detail, but Molly is nowhere near a normal fourteen year-old girl. So while it's a bit of a drive for Molly, it's a few minutes' walk for her father. That means he's the one responsible for lunch.
Which means that their lunch consists of gyros bought from one of the more reputable stands. Taking advantage of the warm weather, Matt has taken off both his coat and jacket, laying them carefully over the back of the bench so that he can roll up his sleeves and keep the tzatziki sauce from sullying his sleeves.
In between bites, he rinses the lamb and vegetables down with a sip from his 20 oz bottle of soda before he looks to Molly. "You remember all those visions people had, right?" It's the only segue from small talk to the reason for their luncheon meeting he can think of. And with Richard Cardinal due to join them any minute, he's got a limited amount of tome to get to the point.
Molly.. LOVES gyros!
And so as she eats hers and grins up to her dad, sauce all over her face. When he mentions the visions, her face falls and she looks away from her dad.
Dressed in a pair of black jeans and a dark green shirt. Her long blonde hair spills over her face as her baby blue eyes look down towards the grass.
"Why'd you bring that up.." she sighs and looks at her gyro like she doesn't want to eat it. Her vision was scary, she was running through a battlefield, a riot. Looking for her father. "I'm running through the riots, watching people be hurt as I'm searching for you." she says with a grim expression and then this fourteen year old girl is nibbling at her gyro. No more healthy bites taken.
"Because," Matt says, his voice suddenly lower. "Because there might be a way to stop them from…from coming true." He rests a hand on her knee and tilts his head to get a better view of her face. "There's a man who's been putting…" What's the best word for it? Then again, why should Matt call it anything other than that it is? Molly isn't ten anymore. "…Suggestions. In people's head. Like, subconscious triggers. We think they're what's going to cause the riots."
Matt takes a deep breath and gives Molly's knee a gentle squeeze. "I want to stop him, Molly. I want to make sure that nobody gets hurt because of what he's done. I want to make sure he pays for what he's done to the people he's already hurt. I need to stop him, but I can't do it by myself."
The young teen stiffens and looks towards her father. "What's his name?" she asks and she crosses her feet at her ankles. The gentle breeze making it's way through the park rustles her hair. She looks up towards the sky and snorts.
I know you don't want me to shoot him, so you want me to find me.
Matt would hear the inward sigh Molly has. "Everyone wants me to find somebody. Elle wants me to find Odessa. Then Tracy wants me to find Nathan.. or the Nathan's." From how Molly understands it. Something is wrong with the President and she hasn't really gotten the chance to talk to her father about it. "Have.. has the President been acting strange dad?" she asks with a tilt of her head.
There's no formality today; maybe Cardinal didn't want to stand out too much. The man's dressed casually, jeans and a polo shirt, a flight jacket worn with a few patches on the sleeves to say where he's worked. And where he works. Catching sight of the pair, a smile crooks beneath his sunglasses, and he heads over towards the bench at an unhurried walk.
Matt can't help but smile at Molly's assumption and subsequent question, and he gives her knee another squeeze. "I know, sweetie. Don't worry about that right now." There are, as Cardinal would say, bigger fish to fry. He takes his hand away then and readies his gyro for another bite, surveying the foil wrapped pita to determine the best strategy to get the least amount of sauce on him and the most amount of sauce in his mouth.
"You know I don't like to ask you," he murmurs as he looks at his meal. "So know that I won't get mad, or upset, or anything like that if you say no. It's entirely up to you." Matt lifts his eyes then, just in time to see Richard Cardinal walking toward them. With a subtle nod, he takes a bite of gyro.
Molly doesn't need to know she's their only hope of finding Rupert Carmichael.
"Dad, I'm not kidding! When I was looking for Nathan, there was this funny thing that happened and I got a huge headache. It was like he was there.. but wasn't there." She rubs her forehead at the thought of it and takes another bite of the gyro. "Fine." Molly says and she lets the subject drop, for now.
"Dad.. I wanna help.. but there's no other way? None at all?" she isn't exactly afraid of looking for bad people. She just doesn't want to end up trapped in her mind again. "If he can implant suggestions, that makes him sort of telepath. He's able to manipulate the brain, how do you know he won't sense the presence and try to implant a suggestion in me?" Eyebrows raised at her father.
As the girl tries to impress the confusion about the President on her father, Cardinal draws close enough to overheard. A wry smile tugs up at one corner of his lips as he nears them, observing casually, "Peyton has the same problem when there's two of somebody. Gives her a splitting headache…"
Gloved fingers dip into a bag of popcorn that he must've bought off one of the street vendors, and he pops a fluffy kernel in his mouth, chewing and swallowing. "Matt," he greets casually, "How's tricks?"
"Hey, Richard," Matt says with a nod toward the other man. "Care to join us?" Molly can budge up on the bench, surely.
Looking back to the girl, whatever faint smile he was able to conjure for Cardinal fades. "He's got a lot of contacts, and he's gone off the grid. We can try using what we normally do, but he's smart, and we're on a pretty tight schedule." Molly's own worries are reflected in his voice and face, but he swallows them back. "I can make sure he doesn't," he ventures. He isn't sure, but there's a chance he may be able to set some kind of safeguard in Molly's mind. A watchdog of sorts against that very possibility. "But if I can't do that, I promise I won't let him get a chance to trip those triggers."
Who the hell is he?
Molly doesn't really like.. most people. She's not that trusting. Look at her first meeting with Kaylee, she ran away from the woman. Her eyebrows arch and she tilts her head at Cardinal. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't stare at him. Wondering in her head, if she likes this stranger. He's weird. Popcorn is gross, why is he eating it?
Her mouth tightens into a tight line as she listen to her father. Molly scoots to the end of her side and pulls her father with her. She doesn't want to sit next to the stranger. She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. She stares ahead and nods her head. "If I get brainwashed, I'm poisoning your next batch of cookies." She's clearly upset but if she can help her father.. why not.. and also she'd be helping the city.
There's no motion made to claim a seat at the bench - Cardinal leaves it to the father and daughter for the moment, not wanting to crowd the poor girl. "So you're Molly," he greets, head cocking a little to one side, "Good to meet you finally… I'm Richard. I work with your dad, sometimes. Good father you've got there. He cares about you a lot."
Richard introduces himself, but Matt adds to it. He's okay, Molly, he reassures. We can trust him.
"That's fair," Matt says with a weak chuckle, knowing it's as good a yes as he's going to get out of her. "We'll have to move you out of Angela's place, if only for a little bit. You'll be closer to me here," and he nods in the general direction of both the DHS Facility and Redbird Securities. "I'll get to have lunch with you every day." But the way he says it makes it sound like a thankful, conciliatory treat, and not a bribe left waiting in the wings in case her initial answer was no.
With her head cocked to the side, she studies Cardinal. She shrugs her shoulders, "He has his days." She looks at Matt with a glare. Way to ambush me. she thinks aloud to her father. Then she's looking to Cardinal again before thinking aloud again. What's his story?
She wants to know. If she were a telepath she'd be plunging into Cardinal's mind. Good thing she's not. Good thing for everyone that she isn't. "Why am I moving?" she asks with a tilt of her head. She looks over to Cardinal again. "I thought it was too dangerous to live with you right now." She states and her gaze turns steely as she listens to her father's words. She has to move again?? Granted it's closer to her father but still.. she's moved enough for a entire lifetime. This doesn't make her happy.
Oh yeah, Cardinal isn't going to touch that one. As she asks why she has to move, he looks back to Matt, a brow raising as he eats a few more kernels of popcorn. Yep, leaving that one entirely to her adoptive father.
Cardinal is met with an annoyed sort of smirk before Matt settles his attention on Molly again. He's such a help, that one. "You won't be living with me, Molly. But you'll be close to the office - someplace I can get to you quickly if I need to. And someplace where people can help you help us." Matt reaches up to brush some of those blonde locks behind Molly's ear, a lop-sided smile slipping onto his face. "You've got to trust me, honey.
"Please."
She blinks.. "Really? Are you really going to go there now?" She growls and gets up and away from the bench. "So people can help me.. help them?" Molly balls her fist up tightly and glares at both men. "I'll help you find this man and that's it. You can send the whole DHS department to Angela's to guard us. I've moved enough dad.. I'm not doing it again. Unless it's with you in a house in Los Angeles." she says and looks away.
Please don't do this. she begs silently.
"Angela's a tough girl, but I don't know how safe it is there anymore," Cardinal says quietly, "Now that the information about the Company has hit… I don't know how long Nathan can protect her, if he's even trying. It isn't really him in charge, after all." A subtle call back to the earlier topic, although easily misinterpreted as meaning someone else. "Honestly, I'm most worried about the fact that Carmichael might know you're there."
"Richard has a point, sweetheart," Matt says quietly, the hand that had been on Molly's face retreating to his lap. "It's not for very long. Just the next week or so." He could compare it to a vacation, or camp, but he knows better. "I don't plan on telling Angela, either. The fewer people who know where you are, the better."
Folding the foil over with a crinkle, Matt sets what's left of his lunch on the bench and stands, but he doesn't move toward Molly. Instead, he wipes his hands with a napkin, looking down at his fingers as he cleans them. "I'm trying," Matt adds, the words riding out on a sigh. You know I want that. I want things to be simple. And someday, maybe the will be. But if all that stuff people saw happens, I may not see you ever again, and I don't want that. And I know you don't either.
"Do I look like I care what you are worried about? You don't know well enough if at all to be worried." Molly hisses at Cardinal. "You'll have to plant a suggestion in my head dad. You'll have to make me agree with this plan." She says stiffly and then she's turning her back. She looks over to JoJo her security guard. "JoJo, take me back to the manor please."
She stops and turns to look at her father with a cold expression on her face as she listens to what he has to say or think to her. Her gyro forgotten as it dropped to the floor. "If you wanted things to be that simple, you could quit your job. We could have gotten away a long time ago. Me.. you.. Mohinder. Kay.." Molly shakes her head and straightens her shoulders. "You can come to the mansion when you want me to find him and you're ready.
I rather not talk to you until then." She's so angry, tears well up in her eyes as she whips back around and //walks away. She won't stomp away like a spoiled brat, she's better than that. At least in her opinion she is. "Love you." Is echoed behind her as she walks away, because she does love her dad. Even though he pisses her off.
Kids. Why did Cardinal agree to have one next year? Well, it's not too late to change his mind…
As she storms off, he shakes his head slowly, regarding Matt for a moment and pointing out once she's out of earshot, "She's kind've a spoiled brat, isn't she?"
When Molly goes to leave with her security detail, who had been three benches down the line and reading the paper in order to give them their privacy, Matt sees her safely into the man's care before he drops his eyes to gather up their leftovers, aiming to chuck them into a nearby trash can. "It's not her fault," he says with a sigh, knowing all too well both Cardinal and Molly have their points. Yes, he gives her everything he can. Yes, she deserves it, but only because he can't be everything for her to begin with. "Don't worry about it, though," he tries to reassure the security contractor. "I'll talk to her again, and I'll let you know." Even if he can't get her to move into Redbird to help Claire even as she helps them all, he can at least get a general location out of Carmichael. It's unlikely the man is doing much grocery shopping, anyway.
"Teenagers," Matt says as he gathers his jacket and coat, a flat smile tugging at one side of his face.
"Can't live with 'em, and they get pissed when you live without 'em."