Participants:
Scene Title | We'll Take Care of You |
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Synopsis | Abby helps Mel get home, then stays to comfort her. |
Date | August 28, 2010 |
Talkative didn't describe Melissa as she allowed Abby to help her get from the beach to home. Though she managed to get her breath back, being slammed into a boat is hardly a fun thing to deal with, and she's no doubt going to be sore tomorrow. For now she's just embarrassed, tired, hungry and still grieving. But it seems that the display of emotions has helped. A little, but it helped.
After unlocking the door and moving inside, Mel glances back to Abby, frowning a little. "I'm sorry I ruined the memorial service," she murmurs.
"Tempers are high, emotions are high. When you get that many people in a place like that and not everyone agreed with the method that brought about the passing of the volunteers…" It's a given. She just hadn't expected that the physical violence that erupted would have been between women. But Bennet had stepped in. Her own headache still rolling around her head, she helps Mel in, having a clue now that something was up with Kendall, or quite possibly, something wasn't right with Kendall. "Who else is here Mel? You said Ling was here, is Faron still here?"
Melissa glances upward towards the second floor, then she nods. "Yeah, they come and go. Tony too," she murmurs, before looking towards the kitchen with something akin to need. Alcohol would numb the pain, she knows. But it also has unpleasant side effects. She knows that too.
Instead she moves over to the couch and sprawls out on it. "I just couldn't let that woman take away the respect, the memory of those people. Normally I might've handled it a bit differently, but with Kendall and Jason…" She shakes her head. "I shouldn't be around people right now."
"Someone once told me, that you can't cut yourself off from people. It does more harm than good" Abigail doesn't follow to the couch, heading for the kitchen instead so that she can dig up a washcloth and rinse it under cold water from the tap. She wrings it out before heading to the couch and folding it up to lay across Melissa's forehead and eye's, cool fabric to cool swollen and puffy eye's as she parks on the floor beside the couch. Taking up the other woman's hand, she works at the pads of Mel's hands, massaging her palm.
Melissa gives a faint smile at the care Abby's giving her. "Maybe…but in one day I nearly kicked a friend out, and punched some woman. I don't even know who it was." But she lets herself try to relax under the attention, though it's not easy letting the tension that's build since Thursday out all at once.
"Susan Ball. She's… well, she doesn't like me, and I'm not a fan of hers. That's not saying that I approve of you punching her, I don't" The blonde murmurs. "There's no place for violence, or even violent words and you let your temper and your grief get the better of you, like that poor woman who was ripping up the pictures"
But everyone is grieving. they hadn't even lost this many people to the Humanis First raid on the beachfront. "Mel. What's happened to Kendall that's got you in this state"
The question has Melissa's breath catching softly. "He's gone, Abby. An…" For some reason she can't force the word 'accident' from her mouth. It's the standard line she's been giving, but she can't make herself lie to Abby. "He took a bullet to the chest, Abby. He…he died, saving my life. He shouldn't have even been there," she says, anguish entering her voice now.
Abby's hands still in it's ministrations, squeezing it gently. Kendall was dead. He wasn't among the list of folks who had perished at the hospital, no one who wasn't 18 was allowed to volunteer. Where the hell had Mel been that she'd been…
"Have.. are you.. going to tell his parents?"
Melissa shakes her head slowly. "I don't know, Abby. I haven't…I don't know. They disowned him for being evolved. So I don't know," she whispers. "I just can't believe he's gone."
"They need to be told Mel. Even if you just send them a letter, there's no rule that says you need to tell them face to face" Abigail shifts, perching herself on the edge of the couch as she tries to coach mel up, removing the cloth from her face so that she can wrap her arms around the other woman.
Blinking a few times at the removal of the cloth, Melissa leans into Abby, head coming to rest on the other woman's shoulder, her arms wrapping around Abby in return. "I just can't figure out why he did it, Abby. He was just a kid and he pushed me out of the way and got shot in my place. And I don't…I don't even have a body," she whispers.
"Don't think we'll ever know Mel. I'm sorry, for your loss. He was good kid" Whispered into Mel's shoulder, holding her tight. "What would he want you to do. From here, right now. What do you think he'd want you to do?" Her hand works up and down Mel's back, trying to bring some comfort and soothing to the distraught woman.
"I don't know. He was so much better than me. So much better. A brat sometimes, and a dork, but pure in a way I've never been," Melissa says, eyes closing, which lets some tears slip out. "What I want to do is scream and yell and break things. To find the person who shot him and make him pay. I want for it to not have happened. He was seventeen! Only seventeen. God!"
"And it was his time, and he's sitting, at the right hand of the lord, sipping smoothies, and trying to get jesus to slip a little rum into it and using his illusion to entertain the others behind the pearly gates until the time that you and those he loves, joins him"
That just has Melissa starting to cry in earnest. "He…he…that little twerp…He was at the auctiooooon," she wails. "He got bought and bought a date and…and…lost control of the illusion on the date with Quinn!" Seems it's all getting let out now. The dam has broke, and poor Abby is in the path of the raging tide of grief.
She can do this, be here and hold the woman as she lets her get it out. Everyone needs someone to hold them. Liz held abby, Teo held Abby, Abby sat and drank with Francois and even though it wasn't holding, it was along the same lines. Someone needs to hold mel and let her get it out and ABigail's there and willing, inwardly mourning the loss of the teenager as well that she so barely knew.
"He was growing up, Abby. I could see it. He kept saying things that were just so mature and good, and I was gonna introduce him to Eileen and get him in the Ferry, and he went on a date, and had a job, and…and…Now he won't be doing any of that," Melissa sobs against Abby's shoulders, not noticing that she's getting the other woman's shirt wet. "If it had to be family, why not someone else? Anyone else? Why not my stupid parents or uncle? Why a kid?"
"I don't have the answer to that Mel. Only the lord does and you know that he has his reason that are just beyond us and won't ever know. Maybe it's just to teach you to cherish what he brought into your life and what he taught you. I dunno Mel" She lets the woman sob and cling, she doesn't care to how wet it'll get her shirt, sometimes, this is just what you have to do.
Though she's not really thinking much, Melissa does manage to keep from ranting at god in front of Abby. Instead she sniffles and leans back enough to look at Abby. "Wanna know what's bad? Not worse, but bad? And with the worst fucking timing possible? The day after it happened, I found out that my uncle is hunting for the ones responsible for the whole damn thing. My uncle is hunting for me. Not specifically, not by name, but it's still me. And I'm as guilty as the one who pulled the trigger."
It's confusing, very confusing, and Abby doesn't have an answer to that, to comfort Mel. "Come on Mel, Lets get you up up in the shower. Let me look at your back and tuck you in on the couch here or in bed. I'll get some comfort food going for you"
There's a faint wrinkle of Melissa's nose as she's reminded about her back, but she nods and works her way to her feet. "I think I'm hungry. Ate a few crackers yesterday, but that's been it so far." She also hasn't slept, but no need to mention that.
"We'll get you fed Mel, we'll take care of you, until you can take care of yourself again" Which will mean that she'll do what she can this afternoon at least, get the woman to sleep and eat. She can't take away the grief or undo what happened. It'll be a long afternoon, that's for sure.