We'll Have Our Cake and Eat it Too...

Participants:

elle_icon.gif mortimer_icon.gif warren_icon.gif

Scene Title We'll Have Our Cake and Eat it Too…
Synopsis What started as a birthday celebration turns into a night of decisions…
Date September 24, 2010

The Octagon — Warren's Apartment


Mortimer asked Elle over early in the evening, but said he wouldn't be there for at least an hour. So he leaves her waiting for a while, and when he returns, wearing a buttoned up white shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and his black boots, he has a large ice cream cake box in his white-gloved hands.

Door closed and locked behind him, he sits the box on the coffee table and holds a finger up for her to wait a moment, then walks into his bedroom for a minute or so, and comes back out with a little shiny blue gift wrapped box, sitting it next to the cake box. "Alright. Sorry I'm a little late, it took me a while to finish your present. The cake's not the present." He offers a wide smile, then lifts the lid to reveal the large ice cream cake with light blue icing, and yellow letters that say 'Happy Birthday Elle' in a kind of electricity font. "Happy Birthday!"

Really unsure as to why she even came here, Elle has been waiting for most of that hour, laying on the couch and staring up at the ceiling. She's been a bit on the depressed side most of the day, and she's even got a wine cooler next to her. She's been drinking the past few days, since she got home from her visit with Cardinal, where she realized that she completely forgot about her real birthday, and while she isn't drunk, she's certainly a little on the tipsy side of things by the time Mortimer walks through the door.

As the door opens and closes, Elle scoots up on the couch, peering over the back of it quietly for a moment. Then, the smallest of smiles forms on her face, and she scoots up on the couch to get a better look at the cake and the gift. "You remembered…"

"How could I forget my girlfriend's birthday? I was just a little late because I was making this…" Mortimer walks around to sit next to her, pulling the small gift over, about five inches in diameter. He unwraps it for her, then takes it out of the box to offer over. It's clearly a snowglobe, with a plastic blonde girl in a yellow hat holding hands with a brown haired guy in a white shirt. They're walking through the snow on the bottom. "Give it a little electric charge, nothing too intense. I painted little metal flakes white for the snow… this is my first real invention."

Elle ilts her head, watching him unwrap the gift. "I didn't even remember my own birthday. Instead of celebrating my real birthday for the first time since I was nine, I went to work like it was…nothing. Just another day. I worked on the case that they put me in charge of." She reaches out, quietly taking the snowglobe and tilting her head to one side.

After a moment, she sends a small jolt into it, a small smile appearing on her face as the litle hidden design appears, and she scoots just a little closer to Mortimer. "Thank you…" Despite the small smile on her face, she still looks somewhat on the sad side.

"I spent your birthday working on that, and thinking about you." Mortimer slips his right arm around her shoulders, gently trying to pull her a little closer. "Even though you forgot, even if you worked, someone in the world was thinking about your birthday and putting effort into something for you. Your birthday still meant something even if you forgot, just remember that."

Elle quietly leans against Mortimer after a moment, still peering at the snow globe with that sad-ish smile. "I didn't even think anyone would remember…or even care to do anything for me." She suddenly raises a hand, wiping at her eyes. "I'm not a good person…and all of my life, I've been working for bad people. Done bad things to good people." She closes her eyes, resting her forehead against Mortimer's chest.

"All your life, you've been doing what you've been raised to do." Mortimer wraps both arms around her now, not bothering to turn the television on or anything, he just sits there like that with her. "Now it's different, now you have a choice. I really… really like you, Elle, I think you're a good person."

The little brunette is quiet for a long while, simply curling up against Warren with her eyes closed. "I'm not a good person. I'm awful, atrocious, and it's no wonder you're the only person who remembered, or even thought to give me the time of day for my birthday. Nobody else wants me."

"You're not an awful person, Elle. People just think the worst of us. There's no one who would celebrate my birthday either, because of the things Warren has done. You're… my only friend. To everyone else I'm poison, or Warren ruins it. And you haven't done nearly as much as he has. You can be accepted, you can be loved, you just have to show people who you really are." Mortimer slowly strokes her cheek with his gloved metallic hand, his other squeezing her waist protectively. "You're all I'll probably ever have, Elle, but you don't have the same curse. My life will be this bad forever, but yours… one day you'll be happy."

"I betrayed my own father, killed one of my closest friends. I'm no good." Elle shakes her head slowly, curling up against Mortimer with a soft sigh. "Who's to say I won't betray you when push comes to shove? I don't want to, but…" She raises her eyes to Mortimer's face, frowning and raising a hand to his cheek, simply gazing up at him as her thumb runs over his cheek bone. "What if it happens anyhow? You're so nice…I wish I could just take you, without Warren or Alex, and have it be just you."

"I don't think you'd betray me, Elle. But I know how dangerous Warren and Alex are, so I know there's always a chance that you'll be ordered to do something. But I don't have to let them out around you, it can be just me." Mortimer closes his eyes tightly when she starts running her thumb over his cheek, as if suppressing a feeling. "I don't want the other two there, I wish it could be just me and you, but there's nothing I can do about it. If I ever tried to betray them, they could pop out without my permission. God, Elle… you deserve better."

Elle lets out a soft sigh, closing her eyes and curling up against Mortimer once more and squeezing him tight. "You deserve better, Mort." She sighs softly, nuzzling her face against his shoulder. "I can't imagine what it's like to be you…the only sane voice in a head full of crazies." She sighs softly, shaking her head slowly. And she knows that if she tries to kill Warren…he'll just push Mortimer out to the front. It wouldn't surprise her in the slightest.

"I've never killed anyone before, but I know my hands have. I never know how to feel about that. Like… if Warren's a murderer, does that make me a murderer? I don't know, I'll probably never know, I just wish life were different." Mortimer looks down at her, his hand stroking her cheek as she tries to get her to look up at him again. "Let's just forget it all for now, alright? No point in dwelling all night, I want you to be happy right now."

His hands move down to the edges of her shirt, and starts to slowly pull it up. "Let's just be a normal twenty-something couple tonight."

"If it ever came to trial…they'd probably put you in a padded cell and straight jacket, as opposed to a prison cell." Elle says this matter-of-factly, squeezing the man tight. "I wish life were different for you…" Then, his hand raises her chin up so her eyes are looking into his, her brow furrowing slightly for a moment. Then, she suddenly pushes against him, wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders as she presses a kiss to his lips, almost desperately.

Mortime likely has zero intention of breaking the kiss, his tongue rolling and sliding against hers. He sighs against her lips, filled with the same desperation, as if kissing her is the only way to get oxygen.

Elle raises herself up, pushing off her pants as she plants kiss after kiss over his lips, almost lovingly. What is she doing? She's just…leading him on. She suddenly raises up, sitting in his lap. Even as she does this, her hands raise, entangling in his hair. "Mort…" She whispers this against his lips, one hand cupping his cheek.

Mortmer is hugging Elle close, clinging to her just as desperately as she clings to him. He's staring into her eyes when she mutters against his lips, then, without any real warning, "I… I think I love you."

This statement makes Elle pause in her passionate kisses, pulling back to stare into Mortimer's eyes, her lips parted slightly in a mixture of passion and surprise. She's quiet for a long moment, her fingers running over his cheeks and face.

Then, tears spring to the electrokinetic's eyes, rather suddenly, and she throws her arms around him, letting out a strangled sob into his shoulder. Her petite form, half unclad with clothing as it is, quakes with those sobs as she squeezes Mortimer tightly. "Oh god…" She cries this into his shoulder, her words muffled by his shirt. "Why can't it just be you in there?! Why can't Warren and Alex just go away?!"

"I don't know, Elle…" Mortimer frowns, looking down at her with a mixture of concern and helplessness, one arm around her waist, while the other just rests against her back. "If I could change it, I would, but there's nothing I can do. Harper offered, he knows a way, but none of us can choose to do it because we won't let the others."

The girl cries into his shoulder, clinging tightly to him. "Please…do it, if you can. Please…I don't want to…" Elle pulls away, fixing a horribly tortured look on the man, her hands trailing over his cheeks. "If…if you could be fixed, maybe…" She frowns, then suddenly pushes away from him, standing. "I can't do this right now." She's in tears as she says this. "It's nothing you did, I just…I can't."

Mortimer sighs in clear disappointment, among all the other mixed emotions he's having at the moment. "I can't do anything about it myself, it's always two against one in my head, so none of us can do it. The only way would be if someone outside did it without any of us knowing." He says this casually, but it could easily be read as a dropped in.

Elle quietly listens to Mortimer's words, a frown on her face, as she fidgets about a bit.. She doesn't look at Mortimer for a long while, staring down at the hardwood floor of his apartment as she fastens her belt. "I'm sorry, Mortimer…I have to do this, because if I don't…" She doesn't give him much time to process what she's just said, suddenly swinging her hand toward him and unleashing an electrical shock on the man, with the intention of knocking him unconcious as quickly and painlessly as possible.

"What's wrong, Elle?" Mortimer asks as he slowly raises to his feet, then the electric shock smashes into him, a lot of it flowing into that metallic arm and causing his glove to melt, but otherwise he still topples over, falling into unconsciousness.

It's difficult work for Elle from there. When he awakes, however, Mortimer or Warren or Alix, or whichever personality is at the front, is tied very securely to the bed with those straps that Elle still has difficulty looking at, nice and tight. Elle is seated at the side of the bed, her legs crossed Indian-style as she stares at the man with a frown, her arms crossed over her stomach.

It's still Mortimer when he opens his eyes, a bit groggy as he tugs at the straps. He looks confused at first, looking around the room until his eyes settle on Elle. Then his confusion seems to raise even higher, asking, "What… what's going on?"

Elle reaches a hand out, running her fingers over Mortimer's cheek with a soft sigh. "I'm gonna get you fixed, Mort." She frowns. "I'm in love with you…I'm terrified of Warren…and I don't even know Alex." She frowns sadly, resting her hand on the man's chest. "And when you said that none of you could choose to be fixed…well." She tilts her head toward him.

"I'm choosing for you. Harper wants me to keep an eye on you…keep you in check. Odessa wants me to kill you, and I almost wanted to, until Warren sent you out. And I want you to have better than this…" She feathers her fingers over his cheek again.

There's a pause, that blank look, and Warren's looking over at his metallic hand with the glove melted over it. "You think you can get rid of me? Do you think Mortimer could do nearly the things I've done to you?" he asks with a bit of a lewd grin, wiggling those robotic fingers before closing them into a fist. Apparently this is self-preservation at work, the most dominant personality with the most to lose has come to the surface. "Mortimer isn't nearly the man I am, I'm better than him in every way, and you love him?"

Elle frowns, raising her hand, the electricity crackling over her fingers as she quietly watches Warren, her head tilted to the side. "I don't think I can get rid of you, no. I don't know how Harper's plan will work, if it'll just get rid of two personalities, or if it will meld the three of you into one." Her eyes hood. "And he didn't break my trust. He didn't put me into a helpless situation and then break my trust." She gestures briefly to those straps, which she's unhooked from the tesla coil. No protection there.

"Honestly, I love you too, Warren, but…you terrify me. You make my antisocial personality disorder with paranoid delusions look like a puppy dog." She reaches out with her non-sparking hand, running it over his chest. "I don't want to have to kill you or break up with you…it's way too difficult for me to do either of those, because I do feel something for you. So I want to fix you. Maybe then, for once, I can have my cake and eat it too…and so can you."

"You'll get bored with him, I promise you that. He won't give you the excitement that I can give you. He won't give you an interesting life… you'll just be bored." Warren closes his eyes, then opens them again, staring at the ceiling. "A personality merge. I can't even imagine. Mortimer has the things we're missing, the things that make him the way he is, and leave us the way we are. Alex was considered the halfway point, but a full merge… Even I can't predict the results. I guess we'll see then, won't we?"

"That may be the case…but I want to try." She tilts her head toward the man, the electricity crackling over her fingers. "You don't have a choice. If you want me in your life, and I know you do, then you have to do this. This is my choice. It's either this, or Odessa and I will kill you and bury your head out in the middle of fucking nowhere. And I really don't want to do that to you." She runs her hand along his side. "I do care about you, Warren, despite the fact that you scare the shit out of me."

"I'd be thinking of ways to kill anyone else if they did this, but this just confuses me." Warren sighs, for the most part just laying there as he contemplates the situation. "Well, I have no way out of this, so I guess I'll just sit back and see where this goes, won't I?"

Elle's brows raise, her hand still running over the man's side in an almost caring gesture. "You do want me, don't you Warren?" She inclines her head toward him. "You have to do this for me, if you want me. I'd rather it be your choice, but I really don't want to have to think of killing you, any more. You're like a virus in my head. I love you. I love Mortimer. And it's been tearing me apart, the fact that there are designs on your life." She reaches up, running her fingers over his forehead.

"I want you, I just don't want to stop existing." Warren's eyes flush into their mercurial color, as if this will somehow offer him some clarity. It never does, but it's always a comfort. "It's terrifying, to be in a body with two other people. It's realizing that life is fragile in a way that a normal person couldn't possibly understand. You always wonder if there's some possibility that you could just disappear one day."

Elle, quite confident that Warren is firmly strapped to the bed and not going anywhere, leans over, halfway laying across his chest and peering up at him. "But what if you don't disappear? What if it really is a sort of…melding?" She tilts her head. "I don't know how Harper intends to fix your mind…but either way." She tilts her head toward him, before leaning up to plant a kiss on his forehead. "I want to try this. I don't want to stop seeing you. Much as I'm terrified of you, I still care about you. You're still the first person I've ever told that I love, and meant it."

"You're the only person I've ever said I wouldn't kill, and meant it." Warren offers as some sort of solace, relaxing there on the bed, surprisingly not appearing very angry. "I don't know what to think, but I'll just hope it works out for the both of us."

"I would untie you, but I want this to happen. Maybe…just maybe…it'll give us a chance." She snuggles up to him, even if he can't snuggle back with her. "And you could have me again, Warren…it'd just be one personality, not three. And hopefully it will merge your personalities…you wouldn't have to worry about not existing any more." She doesn't know how Harper's suggestion will work, but she's doing her best to make Warren feel better about his predicament. "It might not get easier…but at least there would be one you."

Warren calms down considerably, in one of those moods where his crazy is left far behind. "I always forget, we're crazy, we really are only one person, but…" He shakes his head, then gets a little grin. "In case I do die… nah, nevermind."


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