There's No Argument

Participants:

cat_icon.gif danielle_icon.gif

Scene Title There's No Argument
Synopsis During a stretch of alone time, the two captives of Vanguard don't argue.
Date December 10, 2008

Somewhere in Nuked York


They've not had much time alone together since being taken, waking up in the room where Ethan conducted his interrogation and inflicted tortures, that session ending with Cat's refusal to make the call he wanted and the severing of Dani's thumb. She had attempted to staunch the blood as best she could with her hands bound by tape, pressing up to her and trying to apply pressure while speaking comforts. Then Dani's hands had been freed so she could tend herself, and soon after she'd been taken away. Being hooded came next, then being moved somewhere.

Cat thus has been unable to tell if further torture had been inflicted, until now, when they finally reach wherever they were taken and the hoods are removed. She's sore from having been kicked, her hair is matted a bit from dried blood shed when her head was slammed into Ethan's chair, and her face is tracked by tears. For all her stoicism, the efforts to not let anything show, she couldn't conceal her reaction to the man's knifework.

She's been hurt worse in the second round, of course. By now, it's a dull throbbing pain, an ache that beats with every heartbeat. Dani licks her lips once, to moisten them. "Cat?" she asks, her voice weak.

"I'm here," she replies in a hushed voice from nearby, immediately starting to move toward the one she heard in the dim light of this new location. Cat's hands are still taped behind her, she has to scoot along on her backside rather than standing, being unable to use her hands for leverage in standing up and therefore choosing not to do so. She can make her lover's form out, some details can be seen, but the room itself is hard to perceive.

Dani looks over towards the voice. "I'm so sorry you're in this because of me, Cat." Her voice is shaky with tears.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Cat replies softly. She moves closer still, trying to get close enough to be leaned upon and give comfort. "Things are what they are. I made choices, to involve myself in these causes. You came to New York and followed my lead, got involved just by knowing me. That's how we got here." Her voice breaks off, her head moving to place a gentle kiss atop Dani's before speaking again. "Do you have any regrets about that?"

Dani shakes her head once. "No. No regrets. Only that I doubt we're going to have the time I wanted with you."

"You get it now," Cat asks gently, "why I didn't make the call, stop him from hurting you? Because he's a sadist. I won't make any deal that doesn't include you being set free. He'd still have had one hostage to trade, if he even intends to make a trade. The only things I take as honest from him are that he'll hurt and kill us."

She draws in a deep and slow breath, exhaling it before she states "So if it comes to that, we go down together, and the bastard gets only our dead bodies."

The other woman replies "No. Cat, if push comes to shove, you're more important than I am. You need to get through this, if only one of us can."

It's an odd occasion to have humor, being here in this dark room with one missing digits and the other unable to use her hands, but Cat still looses a quiet and dry chuckle. "Are we really going to argue over which one of us sacrifices herself for the other? I love you. Lean on me, Dani, put your head in my lap. I'd hug you, hold you, but I can't."

She does just that…she leans over, putting her head in Cat's lap. "I'm not arguing. There's no argument." She cries a little, silently. "This is all such a mess."

"Did he do anything else to hurt you?" It's a softly spoken question, Cat studying the woman with head in her lap as well as she can in the dimness. "Think about my arms around you, try to imagine feeling them wrapping you up."

There's a long pause. "Yes." she finally admits. No point not admitting it. "Taking a little bit at a time."

Her breath catches, and the body stiffens, Dani can feel and hear it. Cat is quiet for a long stretch of seconds, the bound hands behind her clenching into fists as best they can with the restraint of tape. "What did he do?" she asks.

She sighs. "He took the rest of the fingers on my left hand, Cat. That hand's useless now. It's not a hand anymore." Her voice cracks there, as she cries a bit more.

"If we get out of here, we'll find a way to grow them back," Cat assures. "If we don't get out of here, it doesn't matter." Steel comes into her voice, laced with quiet rage and determination. "If he's as smart as or smarter than me, he knows he has to kill me, because I'm going to hunt and kill him. But if I die, what he won't expect is my ghost which will haunt him and everyone around him all the way to the gates of Hell. Ethan will have to commit suicide to get away from me."

Dani smiles, just a little. "If you make it out, and I don't…I'd tell you to remember me..but that's kind of redundant." A soft, wan smile.

"You'd be unforgettable, perfect memory or not, Dani." Cat flexes her fingers against the tape, and asks a question. "Can you free my hands?"

Dani shakes her head. "No. My arms are still taped together…and I only would have one hand to work with even if they weren't. I'm sorry. I'm pretty useless here."

"It is what it is," she replies. "Tell me again about your favorite memory, Danielle."

Dani smiles. "I don't have one favorite. All my time with you is my favorite, Kit-Kat." She moves to sit up, to try and kiss Cat. "I wouldn't have had it any other way."

Already sitting up, her mouth moves forward to meet and return the attempt at kissing, awkward as it may be without either of them able to use hands. But Cat manages.

Dani can only hold it a moment. She's weak from pain and blood loss. "I'm so tired." she says, her voice weak.

"Get closer," Cat suggests, "sit so we can rest heads on each other's shoulder, and you can sleep on mine." Her legs shift so Dani can do so without sitting on them. "I remember that time, sophomore year, when we hosted the Yale-Harvard game, and found John Harvard asleep under one of our Yale trees. We painted him with blue and white food coloring, then watched to see what happened when he woke up."

Dani does just that, moving. "I remember. Not as well as you, but I remember." Her voice breaks. "I hope we get out of this, Cat."

"He hadn't the first clue when he woke up, didn't know until he reached the stadium and his own people booed him, face all painted in our colors." Cat lets out a quiet laugh. "Me too," she adds in a somber tone after some moments of following silence, tilting her head to one side and exposing that shoulder for leaning on. "Sleep now, Dani. Rest, on and with me."


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December 10th: There Was No Meeting
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December 10th: Recruiting a Messenger
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