Participants:
| Scene Title | Timmy's in the Well Again? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elisabeth brings Abby up to speed. |
| Date | January 5, 2020 |
When Elisabeth took off from the SCOUT squad room yesterday, the only information that was made available to the rest of the team was that Harrison and Thatcher were taking the rest of the day. By the time the blonde gets back to the squad room today, she's got a look about her that Abby probably never thought to see again — the tightness of expression that indicates something very personal is coupled with a rage that only rarely flashes, and usually when one of her own is under significant threat. Still, the audiokinetic's voice is calm as she fields a couple of calls. She's only been here since lunch, and for a lot of the early afternoon she was privately closeted with the Captain. Apparently the chatter in there is largely over and done with, and the results don't look like they were exactly thrilling.
As she stands in the squad room and looks over her people, Elisabeth's professional demeanor cracks just a little as she pulls in a breath. Kaylee hasn't returned to the Watchtower building. With hands on her hips, blue eyes fall on Abigail and she walks across. "Hey, lady. You wanna walk with me? We can bring back the good coffee for everyone." The tone is casual, but Abby even now knows her well enough that it's more that she needs to get out of the building for a bit. Everyone's watching what's going on, waiting for something because it's clear something is happening, but it's an additional pressure Elisabeth could do without.
“If you hadn’t come over I was going to come grab your ear and drag you out.” Abigail looks relieved that Elisabeth is voluntarily departing. “My treat yeah?” Even as she’s getting up out of her chair and grabbing her jacket off the back of it. “Hopefully we don’t freeze our ears off out there.”
Chuckling wryly, Elisabeth replies, "Not surprising." That Abby would have dragged her out. "Sure, if you wanna treat, I'm not going to say no," she adds. Grabbing up her jacket, throwing it over her suit coat, Liz shoves her hands in the pocket to make sure she has her gloves. "Ears are overrated anyway," she teases. But she also pulls out the fleece-lined headband thing she uses to cover hers. "Don't you have a hat or something?" The casual chatter will hold them through the elevator, right?
“Yeah.” Abby’s pulling it out of her pocket. “Springs not coming soon enough if you ask me.” Small talk can be easily done as Abby’s pulling the soft blue hat over her head to protect said ears from the winter weather outside. “Kasha’s coming up this weekend. I told my Dah to let her take Friday off school and come up for the weekend. She’s excited. She wants to get the seedlings started for the backyard and show me what i need to do to keep them going.”
"Awwww!" Elisabeth grins, though it's admittedly a little more strained than usual. "I love that your dad is close enough to help. My dad said to say hello, by the way. Maybe when things get warmer, we can bring all the kids by to see her." It doesn't sound like it will be this weekend, though.
As they step out of the Watchtower building, a very tall African American man detached himself from the lobby and follows them at a discreet distance. He's not always a feature of Elisabeth's day, but today he is very much in evidence and not giving her nearly as much space as usual. Red Hook isn't packed to the gills yet with people stopping on their way home to grab foodstuffs, so the walk is a decent pace.
"I'm glad you wanted to come with," Elisabeth admits. "It gives me room to warn you before the news hits tomorrow. SESA is going to be picking up a member of Wolfhound, and you guys may be tapped to help with the investigation that will be happening."
“Someone from Wolfhound.” Abby echoes, looking to Elisabeth, the bodyguard noted but not paid attention to. “Tell me it’s not Dearing. I don’t know that my heart could take it if it was dear young strapping Dearing” Abby smiles, attempting to inject levity.
"Lancaster," is Elisabeth's somewhat terse reply. "I'm… hoping it's a temporary thing. Bait, as it were." They're far enough from the Watchtower now that she seems to feel able to talk a little more freely. "Richard is reprising his role as Cardinal the Boy Captive." Her tone is grim. "The news will claim that Lancaster assisted in his kidnapping. I'm … not entirely convinced she didn't, but if she did, it was under compulsion, we're almost sure."
Abby opens her mouth for a moment before closing it, blonde brows furrowing beneath the edge of the toque. “Cat and mouse then.” She murmurs. “You’re warning me why? So that I’ll consider both sides or possibilities?”
Elisabeth blinks at her. "No," she replies slowly. "I'm telling you because they're both people you know. And because I didn't want you blindsided either by the news or by having to assist in the arrest, if they call on us." Her blue eyes are wryly amused as she looks at Abby. "And I didn't wanna get yelled at for you having to arrest a friend." She herself is obviously going to be excluded from the investigation.
“Liz, if I have to arrest Lancaster then I have to arrest Lancaster. The same as if you ever had to arrest me, you’d need to do your job and arrest me. Period. This isn’t those days anymore. The days of… Ferryman and the like.” Abigail points out, coming to a stop. “If they call, I do my job. I’m not going to yell at you. Nor should anyone else.”
Stopping with Abby, Elisabeth smiles just a little. "I'm having a hard time coming back, when things like this happen," she admits softly. "My first instinct isn't to let the system work anymore." And that's part of why she's doing this job — because part of coming home again has to include relearning how to trust the system in which she once believed with all her heart. "It's not helping that they didn't just kidnap someone I know." It's tearing her guts out, that they've only had not even a year together before all hell has broken loose like this.
“Then you need to talk to a professional Liz. I get that it’s hard to let things go. There’s things that I have a really hard time letting go of. Like not stashing cash somewhere where I can grab it if I really need it. But… They took Cardinal. I still don’t even know why you’re even working right now. But listen. You lead us. You guide us. Some of us are more fresh than others. And you, above all others, need to trust in the system. Trust it to work. Just trust it. This isn’t those days, this isn’t those -worlds- that you went chutes and laddering through.”
"I'm already doing that. And I'm cleared for duty, but as soon as all this hits, the Captain has me pulled. That's what I was putting in place today — I can't not work, were spread too thin. But I can't work this case. SESA will have lead anyway." Elisabeth sighs heavily. "Christ, Abby. We don't even know who they are yet. The list isn't endless but it's damn long."
She glances over her shoulder where her bodyguard patiently waits for them to start moving again. "I'll probably take a couple of days of personal time just to make sure the kids are covered and get my head on straight. But it's not exactly my first time around the block. I'll be on desk-duty mostly anyway." That's her usual post. "I just wanted you to hear it personally, you know?"
“Could be a shapeshifter.” Abby adds to the possibilities of the how, and who. “I appreciate it. We’ll do all we can and get to the bottom of this Liz.” Her hands in her pockets, she gestures for them to carry on walking. “You need me to come and stay at the house with you?” She offers.
"Need? No… but it certainly isn't an unwelcome thought," Elisabeth offers with a smile. "You, me, Kaylee… some cupcakes and ice cream?" She starts moving again, her hands still shoved in her pockets where Abby can't see the way she toys with her wedding ring. It's become a habit to play with the band when she's worrying. Harmony's always calmer when she has the kids with her anyway, so that works out nicely for Abby, Kaylee, and Liz. "If you want to bring pizza, the distraction would absolutely be wonderful," she admits.
“I’ll bring the pizza. Beats staying in the house alone. I’ll get one of the neighbourhood college kids to go stay at my place. Besides, one night with me cuts your heating bill. There’s a wink from the blonde as she walks beside her friend. “We’ll get him back and to the bottom of this Liz, I promise.”
"Nothing cuts my heating bill," Elisabeth laughs. There's a whole complex being heated, after all. "Captain Wilson will brief the rest of the squad when the arrest comes down tomorrow, and I guess basically we'll just have to go from there." She pauses. "You know what's stupid? My initial reaction was 'oh… guess we really are home, aren't we?' when it happened." She rolls her eyes at Abby. But her blue eyes meet Abby's afterward and she nods slightly. "We'll get him back." A momentary flash is all it is, but there are some things about Elisabeth that are perhaps far more dangerous now than they were back in the day — they're threatening her family. As protective as she was years ago, it's worse now. "Whatever they're up to? I have no doubt that we'll get him back." And he damn well better be in one piece and unhurt.
“Oh, you know that he’s giving em H E double hockey sticks and being annoying as possible. You realize this. Like, they have to be mentally strong to put up with him. Probably worse than I was.” Abby smiles. “I’ll have to get him a pocket bible when we get him back, write in case of emergencies—” Her hand comes out of her pocket and goes left to right in the air in front of them as if parsing out the words. “Apply directly to the head.”
Well, that makes Elisabeth laugh, definitely. "Can you see him beating himself in the head with a bible?" That's the image she got from that statement, even if it's not the one Abby meant. "The nuns would keel over laughing." She herself is dying at the image. "He can hit someone else when they annoy him, and then he can bash himself when he's being an ass!"
“I hit John Logan in the head with one. Then took his eye.” Abby notes perhaps a little quietly. “So, you know. Apply directly to the forehead. The word of God as a weapon.” Her hands sink back into her pockets, looking to see if they’re too far from their destination.
Oh! Well, now, that's a detail that Abby never shared before. Elisabeth goes quiet and considers all the things behind that statement. And then she nods slightly. "Seems to me like Divine Retribution," she observes. "God and I had a lot of conversations over those years," she admits to her friend. "He'll be looking out for my statistically significant other." The tease is a deliberate one.
And then she blows out a slow breath, pointing toward Eleanor's stall — it is, as always, packed with people. "Let's hope she made all the appropriate sacrifices this week and she's got real cream in with that coffee that I'm quite certain she's sold her soul for." Eleanor's ability to get GOOD COFFEE has become legendary.
“You make me think I need to have my Dah bring me a literal cow. Or a goat. Keep it in the yard. So we can get milk.” Mind you, the cow needs to be perpetually pregnant so, that’s unlikely to happen. But it’s time to get in line, Abby refuses to ever use her status to move up to the front. The mention of sacrifices and selling of ones soul for good coffee though, that gets a raised brow. “We’ll see if we can find some pastries as well. Bring them back. Make everyone smile. The sweet breeze before the storm.”