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Scene Title | The Truth Is Much Worse |
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Synopsis | Working in Grand Central Terminal, Kaylee finds something from the past. With the help from the Light House girls, the telepath gets a glimpse into the day of the Midtown Explosion. |
Date | September 15, 2010 |
Grand Central Terminal: Ruins of the Main Concourse
Just because she has a date with the past, that doesn't mean Kaylee Thatcher is just going to sit around and wait for Hiro to pop up and say it's time. The world still turns and there is work that still needs to be done. That's why the telepath is down in Grand Central Terminal currently, going through the boxes and placing items in another box, consulting a slightly crumpled list that she pulls out of the back pocket of her jeans.
Lips move as she reads the next item on the list and tucks it away. "Okay.. Rice. I know I saw that." Murmuring softly to herself she takes time to pull back that mane of golden curls back into a loose ponytail. As she winds the scrunchie around her hair, her eyes scan the boxes.
"Ah…" Is quietly exclaimed as she moves to crouch at one of the lower shelves, tugging a box out and reaching in for a small bag of rice, hefting it in her hand.
"We're looking for some rice too, actually!" A young red haired girl speaks up from the side, a teenager with a smiling attitude and the ability to make even the stinkiest sewers smell nice. Juniper is known to the telepath, who'd spent some time at the Lighthouse back in the days of old, and the young girls around her are known as well. Apparently, the Lighthouse has come out to get some supplies as well. Lily stands nearby, with her small frame and dark hair, while Mala waves happily. Obviously brought along for carrying purposes, Doyle's biggest fan looks bright and cheerful.
People must be in a good mood down here. Or at least not in a horrifying bad one.
"We haven't seen you at the Lighthouse in a while. How have you been doing?" the older of the three asks. "We have a baby there now. She's at the Garden with Gillian so I can do these chores."
"I thought we weren't supposed to mention Gillian to anyone…" Lily says timidly.
Mala pipes up immediately, "Kaylee's okay! She's part of the Ferry. And one of Santa's elfs." Insert big friendly smile.
Glancing up from where she's crouched, Kaylee breaks into a smile when she sees the kids standing there. "Hey girls." It's offered brightly by the young woman, as she straightens from the crouch, her smile turning a touch sheepish. "I'm sorry I haven't been around, been kinda busy." There is a scrunch of her nose, but she doesn't go into details. Kids don't need to know about the times she's been shot and all. "Cause Mala is right, I am part of the Ferry, means I'm pretty busy. Plus I got myself a job and going to college."
Smiling at Juniper, Kaylee offers over the bag of rice. "I have been thinking of visiting again, things keep popping up tho." Especially, small samurai men.
Each girl gets a glance, brows slowly lowering. "Why… " lips press together, before she asks. "Why are you not suppose to be mentioning Gillian?" Leaning down to pull out a second bag of rice, Kaylee toes the box back into place. "More importantly, how is she doing?"
"You should visit. It's pretty much just Doyle and the Brians now, with what happened to Gillian, but that's been true for a while," Juniper says, taking the bag of rice and dropping it into a basket that Mala carries with no trouble. Super strength fueled by happiness is helpful, but the more they talk about unhappy things, the harder it will get to maintain. This shows when she sets the basket down and moves away into the supplies herself, and shy Lily joins quietly, carrying a list in her hand.
"Gillian— she's okay, but she's in hiding now. We still see her at the Garden when we go for lessons and to help out, but it's not the same, really." Juniper keeps her voice down, so it doesn't carry to the younger ones.
Not as quiet as telepathy, which she indicates is okay with a tap at her forehead, before she thinks at the older girl, What happened to her… Getting taken and experimented on. She's afraid it will happen again. And I think she's worried that we'll get hurt too if she's there, so she wants them to think she died in that hospital. Changed her name and hair color and everything. We're supposed to tell anyone who comes by the Lighthouse that we haven't seen her in months and we don't know where she went.
A voice speaks up from the supplies, timidly, young Lily's, "Um, do you know where the dog food is? Hailey's about out."
"Those two men and a baby? Oh dear…" Kaylee shakes head a little, "Maybe I should start visiting." A smile tugging up the corner of her lips, though her eyes fall on Juniper.
There is a narrowing at the corner of her eyes as she focuses on the teenager, head tilting just a little. "Ah…" Is spoken out loud, while the response is tinny in the girls head. I'll have to go see her. Check on her myself… There is a moment before she adds, If she'll see me. Brows furrow a little since the last time they had seen each other hadn't gone well.
Lily's question snags the telepath's attention. "You know…" A she gives Juniper's shoulder a gentle squeeze in thanks, the word echoing in her head, before Kaylee turns to the task. "I think I saw a box labeled dog food." The words are drawn out as the telepath's gaze moves over the highest boxes. "There!" He points up to one of the top shelves. "Not the best place for it… not sure whose been stocking this place."
Kaylee moves to place a foot on the bottom shelf of the racks so that she can stretch out, with one hand and inches the box forward. "Someone is going to…. kill… themselves getting this stuff." Once the box is out far enough for her to grab, the young blonde eases it off the shelf and looks inside it to confirm the contents are as labeled.
"I take care of the baby most the time, but Brian's pretty good with her too," Juniper says in response, moving along to follow, with Lily not far behind. The box gets slipped down, but just as she starts to check the contents label, the grip shifts, and it's heavier than she thought it would be and it falls down and hits the ground with a heavy smack, dog-boxes falling out onto the floor. The contents, luckily, stay inside, but the box is dented, and some of the rubble still remaining on the floor shifts.
"They really should put the heavy boxes lower," Juniper says, as she moves to help, even laughing at the misfortune, as Lily moves in as well, timidly watching her step, and dancing around the shifted rubble.
As they begin to collect things, a piece of metal catches Kaylee's eye. A small metal shape, at first nearly unrecognizable. A small patch of green paint is visible, but the rest of the metal has been scortched by dust and age, and frayed fabric can be seen, as if it were a piece of jewelry, or a charm that got ripped off and buried in the rubble.
"Son of a…" Kaylee starts as she tries to avoid the falling box. "Sorry… sorry." Whether for just about cursing or dropping it, who knows. With a huff, Kaylee crouches down so she try to right the box.
"Your right though, these should be lower," she grouses softly, "I'll tell Robi—" The words trail off as the bit of green catches her eye. "What's this?" Kaylee murmurs softly, glancing at the girls before sliding a foot closer and shifting her weight to bend over the bit of metal.
Reaching out gingerly, she brushes at the dirt and dust cling to it before she moves to pick it up, gingerly, tips of her fingers looking to tuck under the edges to pick it up.
Upon closer inspection, the object isn't even a full inch in size, small and fragile and cheap, the shapes simple. At first glance it looks like it could be a heart, but there's a second heart-top shape sticking out on the side, rather than going into a point, and the same on the other side. The green flake of paint offers another clue, as does the ground off point sticking out the opposite end from the loop, that attaches to a circle clasp, that's attached to a piece of metal with the frayed blackened fabric.
"Someone must have lost that," Lily says, reaching for it and not the dog food that she'd ask for. As soon as she touches it, her eyes seem to change, becoming glassy and blank, even dead-like, as her body freezes in place, hand still stretched out, still on her feet.
"Damnit Lily! I'm sorry, she's supposed to be careful with her ability," Juniper says, putting her hands on the girl's shoulders like she might fall over. "She's a post-cog."
When the girl freezes, all thoughts of the odd object, are forgotten for a moment, so that Kaylee can reach to keep the girl steady with a hand under her elbow. "Lily?" She asks softly, with concern, glancing at Juniper. "Post-cog?" Wouldn't be the first one she knows, the thought of Rhys tickling at the corners of her mind.
Her eyes drop to the object in her other hand again, turning it over by bending her hand just right. There is a thoughtful moment before she looks back to Lily, letting her knee touch the ground and she leans closer. "What do you see or did you see anything at all?" She asks softly. Kaylee's always been the curious type, which is how she gets into the worst situations at times.
When the girl come sout of it, it's done with a shiver that can be felt by those touching her. "I— I didn't mean to," Lily says, pushing the charm away toward the blonde woman, as she reaches up to wipe at her eyes. "I think I saw the bomb— or how they saw it down here… That killed my mom and dad." Juniper bends down and wraps her arms around the girl from behind, as Mala sits down on the floor. The saddness was probably too much for her fragile body.
"It's a clover," she says, if that hadn't been figurd out already. "I saw the person it belonged to. She was about Juniper's age… Her phone was ringing, and she was reaching for it. It was her dad calling… But then the ground started to shake, and the ceiling cracked and…"
It's heart breaking to hear about, Kaylee's brows tilt upwards with it, her hand closing around the the pendant. "It's okay." The young woman offers softly, moving to rest a hand on the girls head, in a soothing way. While the vision is still fresh in the little girls mind, the telepath takes a peek, moving with a near invisible way so as not to upset Lily and so she doesn't have to ask her to remember it.
"I should have guess it would be from the bomb." She shifts her attention to the other two there, Kaylee gives them a sad smile, before her eyes settle on Lily again. "You should be more careful, for sure. Especially, down here… shouldn't have to witness what when on." No doubt the girl could end up with nightmares, Kaylee would probably have them.
The bomb always comes back to everything in their world. Everyone knows someone who lost someone in it. It'd be hard not to, especially in New York. Lily's sniffling and Juniper wipes her eyes, as Kaylee gets lost in the vision that the girl'd seen.
A young blonde girl sits on a bench, head resting back against the wall with her eyes closed, a cellphone held in her hands. Not the fancy new ones of this year, but the older, bulkier ones, that have big buttons and no full keyboards. The shamrock charm hangs off of near the antennae. The kind of flip phones that still needed them. People buzz by in groups, eager to go about their day, as the clock clicks closer to noon.
The phone starts to ring, and the blonde teen's eyes open, bright light blue, as she looks down and flips it open. Phone call from dad.
As she answers it, she can hear a voice, a male's voice, too quiet to make out the words, but the voice is male.
"She didn't show up," she says with disappointed tones, but before she can say more, the ground starts to shake and she drops her phone, and it skitters away, the connection breaking off."
The vision ends there, but something about it tugs on Kaylee's own mind. The phone number. From a phone call she got many years ago.
From her father.
If she was trying to keep what she's doing a secret, Kaylee gives it away a little as she jerks her hand away from the girl, with a small surprised sound. Fingers curl into her palm and she holds it against her chest as if she burned it.
She can feel the charm pressed hard into her palm, sharp point digging into soft flesh, but it serves as a remind it's there. Slowly her hand opens, so that Kaylee can look at the charm, brows furrowing in confusion.
Shoulders slowly slump, a touch of disappointment bleeding into her expression. It… it couldn't be. Her father… Her mind doesn't even want to wind around the possibility, but the words slip out anyhow, shock and confusion laces through the word. "This… belonged… " The words trail off… "No that can't be." Kaylee says finally, head shaking a little bit.
Denial cause the truth is so much worse.
"Are you okay?" Juniper's voice asks the older woman, surprised at the display and the emotion, as she finally lets go of Lily, so she can move over to where Mala's sitting down on the floor, weakened by the lack of body strength as the negative emotions fill the room. Lily reaches forward, instead of pulling back, fingers wrapping around the woman's upper sleeve, as if understanding what had happened. It was like seeing it again, too. All those people must have died when the roof started to break off— or many of them must have.
Did that teenager die too?
"We'll have to get some help getting the supplies back to the car, now." The old Dodge Spirit. Used to be Brian's, then Gillian's. Now it's Juniper's. And they don't have super strength to carry it out now.
There is a blink of eyes and Kaylee focuses on Lily, a haunted look in her eyes. As much as she wants to deny it, there is a nagging at the back of her mind.
"Yeah…" Kaylee says finally, ripping her attention away from Lily, and focusing on the other two. "Let me help you guys." Her hand curls around the charm again, she's not letting it go, it's tucked into the pocket of her jeans, so that she can stand.
Ferrymen's work is never done, Kaylee Thatcher will have to wait to ponder the meaning behind the charm and what she saw.