Participants:
| Scene Title | The Other Fed |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Yeah, that fed. Where Ben hangs around protecting Abby when she and Felix strike a deal for the better or the worse. |
| Date | December, 1, 2008 |
Old Lucy's has a vibrant and lively feel to it, from the dark wooden floors to the shady crimson walls lit up by neon lights and many times, the flashing of cameras from the oft-crowded floor. The mirror behind the bar reflects prices of various drinks, bottles lined up, as well as the entire saloon as seen from the bartenders; bolted-down stools line the other side, and there are loose tables and chairs placed all around, though many times they find themselves pushed back for more space within the center of the saloon. A few speakers are placed at strategic places and around a raised stage to the far corner from the bar. Above the counter, an obviously well-used bar is hung; it is this that the girls working will use should there be dancing, which is one reason many patrons choose to come aside from the drinks. Across the bar and near the back, there is a door that leads to the owner's office and just inside a stairwell that leads a apartment on the floor above the bar.
Early evening, before it gets busy, when the barstaff prepares for the evening shift. Reluctantly, abby has come in for work, more out of need to talk to isabelle is she can, but since the woman isn't there this night, Abby's opting to come streaming in and out of the back room to the front, carting bottles of of alcohol, jumping at nearly any female with blonde hair who approaches the bar. Today is not a good day to be abigail beauchamp it would seem.
Today is an okay day to be Benjamin Fletcher. The bruises have almost faded, he got in more runs today than ever before, and there were two prizes inside his cereal box. He ambles toward the bar, and, upon spying Abigail, gives her a big smile and a wave. Thankfully, he is not blonde nor a woman.
Look around, nope, none that are familiar looking. Abby ambles her way towards Ben, leaning against the bar. "Teo send you?" She asks quietly.
Ben hauls himself onto one of the stools at the bar, tilting his head to the left. "Huh? No. We don't really chat. What's up?"
Abby shakes her head. 'What your poison Ben?" She's got a glass ready. "I'm working in the back but I can stay here for a little bit. Your looking better." She doens't want to talk about it out loud. "Got an early shift so i'm not here all night"
Ben's brow furrows a little. Huh. "Thanks. D'you know how to make a Dirty Pirate?" He folds his arms and leans on the bar; he doesn't seem to think she'll recognize it.
Abby digs in her back pocket for her cheat book, trying to look it up then shakes her head. "I don't suppose that you know what goes in it do you?" There's an expectant look to Ben, with the vain hopes that he'll provide the recipie for her.
"Friends of mine made it up. Root beer and rum, that's all," Ben tells her. "Maybe there's another drink like it, but to me it's a Dirty Pirate."
"Don't even think we have.. rootbeer" Abby murmurs as she turns to eye the various knobs on the soda fountain. "You'll have to choose something else" There's just less oomph with her today. "So what else ben?"
"You don't have root beer?" Ben asks, sounding disappointed. "That's disappointing. Crap. Rum and Coke, then, I guess. Which I suppose is a something else pirate, assuming the pirate part of the drinks is the rum."
"I'll see if isabelle hasn't thought of keep some bottles of ICB here next time' rum and coke, it's a popular drink so ABby prepares it fairly quickly. Well, quickly for her, not so quickly as compared to others. "If you want, you can come join me in the back, i'm just doing inventory and stocking. Staying in the back"
"Cheap labour?" Ben ventures with a crooked smile, picking up his glass and standing. "Sure. If I move some stuff around, can I get this on the house, y'think?"
"I'll pay for it. I just figured you might sit in the back with me" Abby smiles, actually cracks a smile before she gestures to the side of the bar counter and the door, holding it open for him. "THey haven't phoned you up and talked?"
Ben moves around the bar and steps into the back, shaking his head. "Nope." Once he's inside the back room, he glances around quickly before adding, "I ran into Teo and Brian the other day at Stinky Pete's. Brian looks like he's had a rough time."
back in the safety of the back of the room, abby's more inclined to speak. "His clones, on of them, got killed" It's alittle hard to say it. 'Someone dropped it from a tall height and… well" There's a clipboard on a table and she starts to check stuff off and stuff it away. "Maybe he'll be better soon"
Ben has a sip of his drink, blinking. "He has clones?" Beat. "I guess that's what Dean meant when she said he was everywhere. Huh. That must've messed him up." He glances around for a place to sit, selects a crate. "I don't even know how to begin to try to understand how that would feel."
"it's…" Abby pauses, opening a box to count, tallying up whats in it. "It's hard" She forces a msile to her face though and looks over. "Hows the new job? wokring out? Jello legs still or are you finally getting used to it all?"
Ben looks down at the glass in his hands, swirls the liquid about a little. "Less Jello-y," he replies, looking up at her again with a faint smile. "I'm getting used to it. One day I hope to not stink of muscle cream. Maybe sometime before two thousand and ten, even. Is what happened to Brian what's bothering you?"
"I'd offer to help you but I don't think I have it in me today to take away the ache" Abby confesses. There's alook to the clipboard before she drags a crate over to sit in front of him. "One of my homeless people died. I was.. visitng her last night and there was a woman who was watching, and she.. There was in the paper, a story about a homeless woman who's bones were pulverised. I'm pretty sure, it was the blonde woman"
Ben blinks again, sitting back a bit. "I read about it. I wondered." He looks down at his foot now, digging his heel against the floor. "I think I saw a woman kill a guy with electricity once. I left. I think he was already dead, but sometimes I wonder. So she saw you? She knows what you can do?"
"I dont' know. She was asking, and if Mary.. well, I've been looking after Marys ince I came here. Stop, bring her smokes, drink, replace a blanket. JStu little things, her and a few others. If mary spoke…" Abby rubs her face. "She knows my name. and I'm betting she saw my scooter. I tucked that away and have been taking the bus again"
Ben puts his glass aside, frowning. "Did the woman see you heal Mary?" he asks quietly, eyes intent on her face. "Would she have any reason to try to get information out of her?"
"No, no I don't think she did, and I don't know Ben. Teo gave me a list of people to watch out for and she matches someone on the list, except that she had blonde hair, not the brunette like the papers he gave me said, but" Abby holds up a lock of her own now red hair. "Hair color changes, can be changed in the span of a few hours. She didn't try to stop me, just kept fixating on what i'd said to mary about "fixing her" and then.. said she's go get the answers she wanted from Mary. I left lickety split once I heard her hurt Mary and phoned Teo. I'd have called in sick here but.. I couldn't get ahold of isabelle.
Ben scratches the back of his head with a rueful expression. "Sounds like this city is getting really dangerous for you, Abigail. Maybe Mary didn't say anything, but…" He sighs a little. "At what point will you get up and leave?"
"In truth, I don't really know. I sometime think, that it's god, placing trials before me. But at other times…" Abby shakes her head. "I spend more time these days, worrying about myself, instead of worrying about others like I always do. Like I used to do. Now.. there's someone dead, that I know, because of my actions"
"How is it your fault? Should you have stayed there and told her the truth?" Ben asks, resting his elbows on his knees and letting his hands dangle.
"Ic ould have hiddens omewhere close, come back, healed mary. or yes, I could have stayed there, told the person the truth, that I was just' fixing Mary's nictoine problem by bringing her smokes, that I was helping her with her knee's. Maybe then Mary would be spared, and i'd be bringing her that romance novel she asked me for"
Ben rubs his scruffly chin. "Maybe you could have made other choices, yeah. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and all that." He squints one eye almost shut. "You have to know the person responsible isn't you, okay?"
"Maybe. Or maybe it is. Right now, I feel like it is. Teo thinks it might have been one of the Company's agents. If it is, it's.. about eight different ways from screwed. possibly." Abby rises from her crate to look at her clipboard again.
Felix has arrived.
Ben pauses in the midst of picking up his drink to sip it. "…The whatnow's which?"
"Affiliates of Home Security. Though, if they get this vicious.." Abby shakes her head. "You'd have to ask Helena nad te others more about it. I don't know that much. Come on, I gotta take this box out, so can stock the front" Abby's already leaning down, picking up a crate of dos equis to put in the under counter fridges."
Speaking of affiliates of HomeSec. There's one right now. Fel's not on-duty, though - while he's in his suit, he's got no tie, and his shirt is open at the throat. He's got an overcoat on over all of it, and his expression is pinched and weary.
Ben nods, standing up again. "Can I take anything out?" He looks at the glass in his hand. "…That I can carry with one arm? You know what? I'll hold the door for you, how 'bout that?" And out he goes, pulling the door wide for Abby to pass through.
"Holding the door is fine" Abby answers, because both hands are occupied with the box. 'Thanks ben. You came for a drink, not, drink and whining" Abby ventures through the door, head first, peeking for any tall psychotic blondes None, Perfect, it's safe. The rest of her follows lugging booze that she can't drink, because she doens't have a beard. All too soon though, Felix has caught her eye and her heart leaps up into her throat. "Uhh, ben…"
Fel's grim look dissolves in an expansive grin, like Abby is -just- the girl he wants to see. There is, notably, no flashing of the badge, however. He just saunters over to the bar and sits down, eyeing her expectantly. You're the bartender, you gets me the booze, right?
Ben smiles crookedly, though it fades when Abby trails off. "You okay, there?" Felix is given a quick glance and some blinking happens. Awkward.
"Yeah just uh.. keep close?" Is murmured quietly to him, out of felix's hearing range, one owuld presume. The dos equis box put down to where she can get to it to stock it later and makes her way to where the fed is seated at the bar. Uncertainty painting her features. "How's your stomach" A pause "I suppose this drinks on me?"
"I've had worse," Felix says, entirely amiable, though the blue eyes are sharp. "Just bruising. I'll have a gimlet, please. And I'd not say no. Now, look," he says, propping an elbow on the bar, and grinning at her. "What was that all about, at the diner?"
Ben walks back around the bar, selecting a stool just a few seats down from Felix. He raises his rum and coke to his lips for a wee sip and gives Abby an inquisitive look. Wonderful.
"I can't answer that out here" Abby murmurs. "As much, as I was advised to tell you, out here, I can't" Gimlet. Great. Wait, he'd ordered that before. Abby starts to go through the process of making the drink consulting her cheat book though now and then she looks up and around. nope, still so psychopathic blondes. She's a little paranoid today.
Felix arches his brows, politely, and shows no indication of being willing to leave it alone. "Well, then, where can you answer it?" he wonders, folding his hands peaceable on the top of the bar.
Ben rests his elbows on the bar and leans there, shoulders tense. He's not really sure what to do here, so he opts to stare at the bottles behind the bar, and the mirror behind those. He sees a dark-haired guy with blue eyes and some healing bruises looking back at him uncertainly.
'Back room. Meet me there" A gesture to the door she just departed from as the gimlet is slid in front of Felix. Her blue eyes watching him carefully. 'Thanks for not running off with my scooter" She moves then to fill up ben's drink, time to replace the jack and coke. A soft "You want in on this, or no?" Offered by the redhead to the visible bruised guy.
Felix takes a sip from the gimlet, but it's a token gesture. "Wonderful, let's go," he says, tone still determinedly affable. His gaze follows her to Abby, but he doesn't object to her offer to Ben.
"Your choice," Ben murmurs to Abby. "You told me to stay close. You want me in there, I'll sit in, okay?"
"No, it's up to you Ben. Sticking close out here, was just something… precautionary, back there.. you might get into things that you don't want to" The coke is poured into the rum, over the ice. "You choose" And then his drink is slid in front of him. "Thank you, either way" And then, she turns, heading towards the back room door. Poor room is getting alot of action lately.
Felix leaves his drink, in favor of following Abby. Not too closely, but with that curiosity still very close to the surface.
Ben looks at the drink, then at Abby's retreating back; he closes his eyes briefly before standing up and bringing up the rear. To the back room! The rum and Coke is left on the bar. Booze just doesn't seem prudent in this case.
Back to the back room. The door opened, held open for the two men by the ponytailed redhead. "Welcome to Old Lucy's backroom. Seems to be the fed and other hangout of choice" Felix in, Ben in and she closes the door, leaning against it. "Felix, my friend, if he wants to say his name, i'll let him, till then, he's just my friend. Friend, felix. I've been told feliz is a good guy" Her blue eyes switch back and forth to the appropriate person as she speaks.
"Have you?" That seems to throw Fel off a hair. "By whom, exactly?" By his posture Fel's half-poised to be jumped. He flicks a look at Ben, but it's clearly Abby who has his interest for the moment.
Ben leans against the wall by the back door; he just smiles at Felix, with a little shrug, before looking back to Abby. Seems like he's curious about who tipped Abby that Felix was a white hat, too.
"Elisabeth. Staff Seargeant Christian Powell. I seem to get around. I was told that trust wouldn't be misplaced with you, and that the truth woudl do better, than hedging" Crates crate crates, some for everyone to sit on and abby does just that. "I don't know what that was about. All I know is when we got to where we were going, I had a job to do. Same job I do when I get a phonecall from anyone who asks. if you want to know more, you might have to talk to Mr. Powell" Abby's knees are higher than her waist whens he lowers herself down to the crate.
"So, Christian can vouch for you," That leaves Felix thoughtful, and takes the edge off that barely concealed hostility. "And your friends? Who were they?"
Ben blinks, raising an eyebrow at one of the names said. He's keeping his arms loose at his sides. Felix can probably recognize that he's still tense.
"Don't know whether he'd vouch for me, but we met. I tend to just find myself in the wrong moments at the wrong times lately. My friens…" Abby sighs softly. "Not friends. People who came in the diner when I used to work there, that I met, that I can help on occasion when they need it. I don't question, I just help, it's what god expects of me" Abby glances to ben, a curious look at the way he behaved when the name were spoken. "Like Is aid, we got to where they needed to go, and.. I did my thing. No. Peter Petrelli was not there. Not anymroe"
God? What's God got to do with it? "Really? Anyone? What sort of help does God expect you to give?" Felix wonders, tone just a little arch.
Ben gives Abby a faint smile, shaking his head. Felix gets a bit of a raised eyebrow. He's slowly getting more relaxed; he folds his arms across his chest, shifting his feet around but still leaning against the wall.
"Give me your hand" Ben's seen it. Hell, he saw a limb regrow. An innocuous hand held out, palm up, finger spread just slightly so as to be non threatening and inviting. Abby waits, patiently to see whether he'll trust her, or not.
She gonna read his palm? Fel hesitates only a moment, and takes her hand in his. His hands are callused from the firing range, and the salle.
Ben grimaces a little; maybe he doesn't approve. Maybe he's gassy, sometimes it's just really hard to tell. He rubs his face with one hand. "Abby," he starts to say, but trails off.
"He said I could trust him… and frankly, maybe I need to put my trust in more sources too" Abby fires back to Ben "Maybe then, I wouldn't be walking around afraid that someone is going to come for me. They can't protect me all the time. God can't protect me all the time" But then, Felix trusts her to a degree and his hand is in her. Both her hands close over his, her head is dipped and her lips move as a prayer spills from her mouth. False start though, not concentrating enough and little surprise, when she doens't feel the immediate trasnfer from herself to Felix. So she starts again, pouring the whole of her body and her faith into prayer. There, it starts, warmth and tingle wending it's way to repair what Brian and Helena had done the other day. Abby remains still, eyes closed and hand holding gently onto his.
The cynicism, oh, it burns. Fel says nothing re: God. His face goes still, expectant. And then he startles a little bit, other hand going under his shirt to test the sudden bruiselessness. "A healer, huh?" Oh, so astute, no wonder he's a cop.
"Lots of people say you can trust them," Ben says. He holds up his hands. "I'm paranoid. You know that. I don't have a say in the matter, anyway."
"Lay on hands, faith healer" Abby murmurs, watching his hand go to where she can feel the healing go. "God wills it. Friends call, I answer. I do my best to mend torn flesh and yes Ben, I know. Except that Mr. Powell was with someone I trust implicitly. And some things Ben, you have to take on faith"
"Deus Lo Volt," Fel says, with a touch of irony. "But thank you," He brushes nonexistent lint from the sleeves of his suit. Ben gets a rather sardonic look. "Wise of you. And you must trust Christian a great deal."
"I'm a little lacking on faith at the moment," Ben murmurs, glancing between them. He peers at Felix, tips his chin toward the man. "What's your stake in this, the Evolved?"
"Dues lo Volt" Abby smiles the, first true one for the evening. "God wills it, your welcome" It's done, and abby pulls her hands away from his, clasping them in her lap. Ben's question. "I trust my friend, who trusts Christian. Trust is a very valuable currency, easily lost as it is given. Something to treasure greatly"
Felix closes his eyes for a moment, as if her sheer earnestness stung. In answer to Ben's question, he slowly puts his hand into his coat and pulls out a worn leather wallet. From it he fishes out a Registry card, and flicks it at Ben with that almost contemptuous motion.
Ben's hand reaches out to catch the card; he fumbles it, stoops down to pick it up. "So you're Registered. Do you support the Linderman Act? Do you want everyone to register?" He offers the card back, expression bland.
Now it's abby's time to remain quiet, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. So Felix was evolved. It didn't mena much of anything to her. A person was a person was a person.
"Originally, yes. Now I'm not sure it's not doing more harm than good. However, whether I like it or not, I enforce it," Felix explains, tone equally mild, as he tucks the card away.
Ben places his palms together, tips of his index fingers brushing his lips for a moment before he speaks. "Strictly, or more on a 'don't ask, don't tell' kind of basis?"
Tennis match, look to ben, then ot felix, waiting expectantly for the answer.
Its somewhat of a tennis match, look to ben, then to felix, as abby waits expectantly for the answer.
Ben gets a slow smile in answer. "That's not my primary job," he explains, delicately, even as he pulls off his glasses to polish the lenses on a scrap of cloth. "Mostly counterterrorism. So, if I think it's in the best interests of a case, I can let it slide…"
Ben smiles faintly as well, inclining his head. "Works well enough for me," he says, glancing at Abby, then back to Felix. "The high school. Was that really PARIAH?"
'I need Caffine, i'll be right back" Abby murmurs, a look to Felix to see if there's any great objection or not.
"I don't know," Felix says, evenly. He lets Abby go with a faint nod, as if it required his permission. "They claim credit."
Ben's gaze flicks to Abby, then back to Felix. "I'm Ben," he says, though Abby's actually said his name. He offers his hand.
Felix takes the offered hand and shakes it firmly, without hesitation. "Felix," he says, and adds, reflexively, "Yes, like the cat."
Abby slips back in, red bull in one hand, coke in the other. Reminiscent probably of when she was in the diner. The door closes behind her. "Off shift. Time ticked over while we were in here" More just fact, tossed out. She takes her deat back by the crate, using a second to hold her drinks, a slight grin at seeing the two men shakes hands. "Better ben?"
"I didn't actually think that," Ben says, shaking the Fed's hand and releasing. "But I guess you get it a lot. I only get 'like the bear' sometimes." He smiles crookedly at Abby with a little shrug. "Better."
"So, what were you called in to heal for your buddy, back at the diner?" Felix wonders, tone offhand. Like it's all casual.
"He hurt his hand, split to the knuckle. I couldn't heal whats wrong with his heart and his soul" Abby pops the tab of the Caffine drink. 'Christian's arthritis, I was going to see to Elisabeth's wounds, but it would be hard for her to explain how she goes from hurt, to healthy in the span of a day. I had thought to call her for coffee a few times and help her along. He places before me, those that need my help"
And there's Ben, still bearing evidence of bruises. He backs off, finds a crate to sit on. Same one he used before, hands resting on his knees, silent again.
"You'd have to be less a healer and more a saint to take care of that. Elisabeth, hm? Comes into the Owl, now and then?" Fel prompts, curiously.
"Never a saint. Just a woman making the worlds hurts a little less. She deserves it, if I could have been there, I could have helped people but I was.." Abby gestures to her own nose still bearing the marks of the incident in harlem. "It's a good diner. You know that. You've been going there how long? The meatloaf sandwhich is almost magical" This spoken between mouthfuls of red bull.
Ben swings his legs up to settle cross-legged on the crate. "The chili burger is good."
Felix notes, tone a little wistful, "About twenty years now," He thrusts his hands into the pocket of his suitjacket, a touch awkwardly. "I….are you Registered? I swear, I'm not gonna drag you in, or write your name down on some list," His tone is gentle, but there's urgency behind it.
"I'm not" Abby murmurs. "I'm not evolved. I have no intention to register a divine gift. They'd still consider me evolved i'm sure, and I have no urge to.." There's a deep breath. "I have no urge to have my life be a hospital room and people paraded in front of me for me to use gods gift upon. It takes a toll on me, and I'll not be used like some battery, tucked away to recharge when i'm all dried up" She's firm in that at least. She looks to ben.
Ben blinks a few times. Why is she looking at him? He looks over to Felix and shakes his head. "Plain old non-Evolved here," he says. "Just close ties."
Fel does a decent job of concealing his reaction, and merely nods, blandly, to that. "I can understand," he says, wearily. No arguing with her, there'd be no point. "Do you heal whomever asks you?"
'Yes' Abby nods to that. "I only ever turned away one request and it hurt me, within my heart to do that. But .. it was a request out of greed and selfishness and I couldn't do it. It's why I don't work at the Diner anymore and I abandoned my apartment. His name was Detective Demsky. His… sorta daughter threatened me, if I wouldn't heal him. But if you call, and I can come, I'll do what I can" She had forgotten that ben was normal. She digs in her back pocket for her notepad/cheat book and writes down a number. "I had to get a new phone, but here. If I don't answer, leave a message or an address and i'll come. If it's not something wrong with the blood, I can mend it with enough time"
"Small world," Fel says, with a rather wolfish curl to his lip. "I know Demsky well, and he's a good man. Good police. Don't care for cops? And why'd that have you leaving the Owl? to the best of my knowledge, they don't care about that there…."
Ben frowns; he hadn't heard why Abby moved around. "Threatened how?" he asks, an eyebrow going up.
'turn me in, have me arrested, force me to register. Only thing I can think is that, in that way, she could make me heal him. She doesn't understand.. how if everyone knew, what I could do… My life would not be normal, not that right now it is" Abbys' lips are pressed in a thin line. "and no, if I had a thing against cops, would I have helped christian, would I be sitting here in a room with you? I'm.. TO go to work one day and be devoid of major injuries, when the day before, you couldn't get around without help, or your arm in a sling? How would you explain it? I can get away with helping people at places where there's mass injuries, like the place in the financial district. It's easy to slip past yellow tape, while people are distracted and not paying attention to someone praying over someone else. The bomb two years ago, I helped so many there, under the guise of red cross" There's another pause. "I would have been at the school, but a friend asked for my help with Belinda Chu" Abby finishes off the red bull. "I haven't helped detective Demesky becuase I was afraid, and because it wasn't colette's right to demand. What if he didn't want it? I've sent him a letter, with my number, and explaining how I can help him. With the caveat that his… daughter not be told. I'm making amends for my refusal, becuase it's unfair to punish him, for her"
"Noble of you," Felix says. And mostly manages to press the suspicion right out of his voice.
Ben considers that; his reply is a simple, "Sounds like she was scared."
"Not noble" Abby murmurs. "Maybe it is. I don't know. Nobility gets people killed. Secrets get people killed" It's time for the coke now. "It's christian of me, it's expected of me" Her blue eyes match felix's eyes. "I'm doing what I can. I can't heal the world. If I could, I would. I really would. But I'm just a person"
The Fed's expression has sealed over into one of those fairly immobile masks, as he listens. He nods to that, gently. "That they do," he affirms, hands still in his pockets. A sidelong glance at Ben. "So. Peter was there but gone, when you showed up on the scene?"
Ben rubs his face again, he murmurs, "Being upfront can get you killed, too. But that's a conversation we've had before, so… what's this about a Peter?"
"I don't know" Abby shrugs. "I've never met him before and I have yet to meet him, I said already that he wasn't there. Just someone he had hurt, and I had the job of healing him up. Then they left and I… " Abby looks to felix. "And i've been waiting for you to haul me in, and hiding from a few other things. Hence i'm in the back room"
The Fed grins, entirely unable to help himself at that. "Nah. You seem like a local problem, and I'm federal," he explains, settling into a comfortably hipshot posture. Surely he's not teasing. "Like I said, I'm not the one in charge of enforcing the Linderman Act. I'm not after penny ante bullshit. Don't give me any reason to think you're working with terrorists, and you're off my radar. Right?" His tone is prompting.
Ben rests an elbow on one knee and cups his chin in his hand. "Not too shabby."
"Our principles don't match" Abby answers. "I don't take to hurting people. Only fixing them. I'm.. a vaulable commodity, that doesn't like to be treated like a comoddity. But there's more than one group out there Agent ivanov. The one group I do knwo of, see fit to toss me the descriptions of people that I need to avoid, whom I have .. popped up on their radar. Pariah is one, there's another, it seems, about.. 7 people? They're.. worse than Pariah. I think I met one last night, and.. it's a pretty good bet that the night that I can't remember, that there was one there too"
He'd been preparing to leave…..but that has Fel stiffening, head cocked to one side in one of those rather canine motions. "Oh?" he wonders, voice going quiet. "Worse than PARIAH. What can you tell me about them?"
Ben lowers his hands to his knees again, brow furrowing and mouth tightening into a worried frown. He looks from Felix to Abby, attentively listening.
"There's an asian man, long hair, can teleport using shadows? There's a brunette, lean, mid 20-30's, A blonde man… mid 30-40's responsible for the death at the alley" Abby begins to recite them from memory since she burned the paper like Teo told her to. " An english guy, tall, blading, cockney accent but he can speak many different languages. I healed him once they think. Pretended he was russian" On and on it goes, till she ends with the decription of a teenager, thin, short dark hair. "I was told to watch out for them. They might be after me. They're all in the company of Sylar it's thought" Abby watches the fed carefully. "The tall brunette might be a blonde, or she might be as my friend told thinks, part of The Company. She's responsible for the death of Mary, last night in Brooklyn. One of the homeless people that I take care of"
The muscles in his jaw tighten. She's said the magic word. "Those are exactly whom I'm looking for. The young woman - what do you know about her?" he presses. "Have you seen her outside? Did you see any birds in her presence?"
"Who's ——?" Ben starts to ask, but he holds up a hand, shakes his head. Nevermind.
Now it's abby's turn to stiffen. "Did you say… birds?" If there could be a lightbulb, it's be turned on right now. "Really skinny.. like she needs to be fed?" Abby swallows, hands coming up to rub her face. "Eileen. There was a girl, at the uhh.. some italian place that my friend took me. The pidgeons were all gathered at the window next to her and we were feeding them for a bit after, I walked with her… "
"Eileen," Felix confirms, tone fierce. "Listen. You see her around, call me. Don't waste any time. She's working with Sylar, almost certainly. Company. Was that…..you don't mean the CIA, do you?" Which is the only way Fel's ever heard that word used as a euphemism.
Ben's left leg bounces up and down quickly, gently; he's more vibrating, picking up on the tension. He knows this is bad, but there's nothing he can do, so that's hit outlet.
'If I see her again, if I had a number for you. The company… Not good, and I don't think they meant the CIA when I asked, far as I know, just homeland security. I'm not kidding about this, none of this" even abby's getting nervous now. "I'm not much in the know of what other know, but I do know, that woman beating the life out of a poor homeless woman, if she's part of this 'company' and agent for them, that i'm not looking forward to another meeting. I really don't want to dye my hair again and i'm going to have to now"
Felix fishes a business card from his wallet, and proffers it to her between two fingers. "That'll route to my cellphone, if I'm not actually in the office," His face is very grim. "Listen. If you can get me good info, I can go a long way towards smoothing over any awkwardness concerning your lack of Registration. Could even get you registered as one of our protected informants - we'd be able to help, if you really were in danger. Do you understand?"
Ben raises his hand a little. "Pardon. If I see them? Can I have your number, too?"
"I know what happens when you register Agent ivanov. They put your picture, your home, your abilites, everything on a website where anyone can see it. Like they do a sex offender. I'm not evolved. I'm a faith healer. I'd still be called evolved. But could you really protect me? Could you seriously keep people from coming to my home, when I get a new one, and sitting on my doorstep and begging me to heal them? Keep the boogeymen from slicing open my head and digging to see if they can take my faith and turn it into their own?" She takes the card regardless, looking at it then back to him.
"We can get you so far out of town and into a new identity, your own mother would neither recognize or find you," Fel states, with complete assurance. "I'm not talking about Linderman's registration. I'm talking about with the Bureau. Nothing to do with being Evolved, everything to do with what you can tell us," Ben gets a nod, and another business card. "And even those who are Registered…..well, they can make you unlisted. That's what they did with me," Felix explains.
Ben swings his legs down off the crate so he can lean forward enough to take the card from Felix. He looks it over, tucks it into the pocket of his jacket, looks to Abby for her reaction. "I asked you what it would take for you to leave the city," he says quietly. "Maybe this is your best option to escape from these people."
"Maybe ben.. Maybe this is god giving me an out" Abby shakes her head though. "If I help.. I need to stay here. I can do more good here, with those I know. I've been uprooted enough, I'm not ready to.. leave everything, change everything again. But could you truly… make me unlisted? In exhange for just information, you'd protect me?"
"That's how it works," Felix explains. "I'm not HomeSec, but the Bureau does have its own pull in these matters. We're after terrorists, not little old ladies who can make their pet kitties change color."
"You'd still be known to the Bureau," Ben says, glancing between them again. "Who ranks higher, anyway? HomeSec or the Bureau?"
"Just information. You'll not drag me aroun expecting me to heal every little wound, i'll still have.. my life, to my own, church on sunday's, making the rounds with my homeless people"
Felix lifts his hands in a gesture meant to be placating. "No," he says, quietly. "You won't be taken in to use as a doctor on tap. Honestly, you can be registered with us without your power ever becoming an issue. I don't have to mention it." He shoots a sidelong glance at Ben. "Depends on the issue. We don't step on each others' toes, generally."
"And if the issue is an Evolved?" Ben asks, sounding tired again, shoulders slumped.
Abby looks to ben, confused about what his question was.
"Being Evolved doesn't automatically make it their jurisdiction," Fel replies, though he, too, looks quizzicaly.
"What? Protection from the Bureau's not so much good if HomeSec can demand the files or information on any Evolved the Bureau knows about," Ben says, arching his eyebrows. "But it's still better than nothing, I guess. One more layer of protection."
"I'm taking it. Your right ben. it's one more layer and I'll take all the layers I can get, if it'll allow me to keep doing gods work" Abby looks from ben to Felix. "I really, don't have much, but what ever makes it my way, it's yours. I don't want to keep looking over my shoulder and afraid"
Felix shakes his head. "No. They can't," he says, staunchly. "Doesn't work like that. And good. I'm not asking you to stick your neck out, in any sense."
Ben smiles faintly at Felix, humourlessly, but he doesn't say anything further. He brings one leg up again to rest a foot on the crate he's sitting on.
"What do I do now then?" Abby's hand comes down on Ben's foot and she rubs at it soothingly.
"Nothing. Call me if you find out anything further," Fel says, bluntly. "That's the important thing. That cell you mentioned….definitely people we want to know more about."
"What have they done and what are they trying to do?" Ben murmurs, glancing at Abby's hand on his boot and looking briefly puzzled, though not annoyed.
"And if these company people make a pass for me?" Abby questions, though she looks to Ben. "Murder, death. without morals, or conscience. That's the best that I know. Sylar… hunts down evolveds and cracks their brains open, trips merrily throgh their brains like a little child does going to sunday school, and steals their gifts from them, for his own purposes and watns" An evolveds version of the boogeyman.
"Sylar is a monster," Felix says, voice utterly flat. "The Company…..not as familiar with them. But if you work for us, we'll protect you."
Ben's brow furrows again; his brows knit together. "Why would anyone work with this Sylar guy? What's in it for them?"
There's a silly smile on abby's face. "Honorary fed" The corners of her mouth turn up. "If I send detective Demsky your way, you'll vouch for me? Same for Elisabeth? I can't stand to see elisabeth in paint when I can help, she's been nothing but nice" Abby looks to ben. "I don't know. But if I do find out, Agent ivanov, i'll let you know"
"I can, yes. I know the both of them," Fel says, without hesitation. "I don't know. Mercy? Protection? The assurance he'll eat them last?" he suggests, voice a little sardonic.
She shouldn't laugh at the last, she really shouldn't but there's a whole boat of stress that's been sitting on her shoulders. Still is. Eat them last. The southern redhead's hands cover her mouth to stifle it.
"That'd be pretty stupid," Ben remarks, exhaling in a big sigh. Abby's amusement makes one corner of his lips quirk up, however.
Felix snorts at that. "Preeeecisely," he drawls, glancing between them. "And I should be off. Take care."
"Wait.. so I won't have to go to apolice station, give them my name the like. You'll be doing that?" She still has the card clutched in her hand.
Ben raises his eyebrows, glancing between them. Spectator at a tennis match.
"Yes," Felix says, smiling to himself, as he shrugs his suitjacket more comfortably back into place. "No point in outing you, hm?"
Abby nod. "No point. Thank you Agent Ivanov. I'll try to not.. dissapoint. THe help goes both ways. If someone's hurt, and you don't want to risk taking them to a hospital… call"
Ben cocks his head to the left and regards Abby thoughtfully. "You make me pretty much obsolete."
Abby looks to ben. "No, it doesn't. If the blonde woman still finds me.. who's going to run and tell Agent ivanov that i'm in trouble? Becuase I highly doubt she'll be letting me make a phonecall"
Felix bows a little, an oddly formal gesture, before he takes his leave. No verbal farewell.
Ben watches Felix go, murmuring, "I meant the rest of it. Taking care of people who can't risk going to hospitals." He looks back to her. "He seems… alright. How'd you meet?"
Abby blinks at Ben then to the departing fed. "Lady, once is an accident, two times, you need to report him" Abby imitates Felix, albiet with a southern accent. "He came into the diner, before I was a redhead and he's come to the bar. A couple days ago, Helena and Brian gut punched him in the diner and I was with them. It was a matter of time"She looks down to the card. "No Ben, just makes you that much more valuable to phoneix. That, and .. It's a gift that works slow, your skills.. it's compliment greatly. You can get them stabilized. me.. I don't know a thing about first aid other than to put bandages on"
"Brian and Dean did what?" Ben asks, mouth hanging open a little. "They socked the FBI guy in the gut? Seriously? Why?"
"Brian was getting bet up by peter in the midtown. He yelled it out in the diner, Ivanov got up and tried to block them. By the time we got to midtown, one of brian's copies was falling from up high. Died, I couldn't do a thing, and another one of his copies was beating his own self up out of grief" Abby shakes her head. "I swear Ben, i lead a quiet life until I met Helena
"About that, actually… Peter? I don't know the name. Or Sylar, either," Ben says.
"Peter.. I don't know. Sylar…" Abby shudders a little. "Supposedly he can take the form of anyone, it's why phoenix has passwords. He takes powers from evolved, skills them in the process. They become his own, these people.. supposedly are with him, or he with them, I don't know. Teo only gave me the list so I could keep an eye out and get away"
"So Phoenix would be like a buffet to him," Ben drawls. "Lovely. As if life for the Evolved wasn't hard enough already. Does he have a way of sensing people with abilities?"
"Buffet of probably one of the highest calibre's" Abby murmurs. "I don't know. I've never met him and if I did.. i'd be dead. Who wouldn't want to be able to heal themselves? Even at the cost it gives" Abby's suddenly cold. "I hope I haven't screwed myself over. I should go home. Hide out. I need to call isabelle and ask for a few days off. Just hunker down"
"Maybe," Ben tells her, frowning up at her. "You think that blonde woman's going to come after you?"
"I dunno. I really don't. I hope not. I should go to church. God i'm sure, will have the answers. Thanks for coming back here Ben. I really.. appreciate it" Abby stands, her hand coming off his foot, tugging on the chain around her neck.
Ben stands as well, smiles with a little shrug. "I consider you a friend, Abby. If you need me for anything, I'll be there."
'Thanks Ben. That.. that's more comforting than a fed who goes running out the door saying he'll take care of everything" Abby murmurs, palming the card into her pocket.
"He's probably better in a fight," Ben tells her with a little quirk of his lips.
"But I bet he can't tell me when my nose is broken and when it isn't, or play interference when necessary. I know that.. he'll be looking out for himself first, i'm not stupid.
"But I bet he can't tell me when my nose is broken and when it isn't, or play interference when necessary. I know that.. he'll be looking out for himself first, i'm not stupid. But he's another layer, Just like Helena and teo are another. I can't have too many" The crate she was sitting on was kicked back to where it's supposed to be and the list hung up on a nail. "Go, get. I'm going to church then home. I'll call if I run into trouble Ben"
Ben nods, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Alright, Abigail. See you around. Or maybe not for a few days." He smiles a little, ducks his head, and heads toward the bar proper again.
 December 1st: Matters of Security |
 December 1st: Out of Hiding |