Participants:
| Scene Title | We Put The Fun in Dysfunctional Family Dinner |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Abby and Con stop by to check up on Liz, and they all wind up having a weird little family dinner that just seems to work for all of them. |
| Date | December 20, 2008 |
Elisabeth's Apartment
Liz' phone rings. It's Conrad. Most likely she'll be able to tell by the caller ID. He doesn't try to conceal his. For a crook and a suspected terrorist he sure is awfully lax about covering his tracks, isn't he? A wonder he's still walking free, or else he just finds other ways to be sneaky.
Grabbing the phone, Liz says into it, "Harrison." As if she didn't look at the caller ID and is expecting it to be work. She sounds and bit tense.
"Wozniak." comes the reply on the other end, even echoing her tone of voice if not her voice itself. Con's not playing THAT weird game. "What're you up to?"
A pause. "Uhm… not much. Why?" Liz sounds a little wary.
"Where you at?" asks Con on the phone. "Wanted to compare notes about the other day." Gosh. One wonders just what events he's talking about.
Rolling her eyes on her end, Elisabeth says, "Home. Want me to meet you?" The blizzard out there is a fucking mess, but she'll go out there.
"Oh good." Bambambambambam. Goes the door to Liz' apartment. "Just making sure." He hangs up the phone. He grins and says to the guest he's dragged along with him, "I like to keep her on her toes."
"I couldn't have figured" She's not objected to being dragged along, though she made conrad stop and get her coffee. Big huge cup of coffee. Which the blonde sips at her leisure in the hall.
Elisabeth jumps and looks at the door, hanging up the phone with a faint sigh. It's actually a good thing, though, that he came here. It takes her a while to get to the door, and when she opens it to let Conrad (and Abby!) in, she's on a set of crutches, wearing a pair of comfy sweatpants, socks, and a sweatshirt. "Oh! Hey," she offers a bit lamely. "C'mon in," she says with a gesture toward the living room.
Con accepts the invitation and says at Liz, "Quit faking, you ain't hurt." And yes, he's kidding. He offers by gesture to close the door for Liz since she's currently disadvantaged. "I went and got Abby partly because I figured if I didn't then Helena would call her again to heal wounded kittens, pigeons, and presidents."
"I think I got everyone already. I already got Elisabeth earlier" The southern woman eases in, already having kicked off the snow from her boots when they entered the building. The coffee is relinquished enough to peel off her boots so that she doens't slush up the womans apartment and look around.
Smirking, Liz replies, "Nope, not a bit. Abby tidied up my leg a bit at the hospital, but we couldn't go too far there." She winks at Abby as she gimps a bit back toward the living room. "Couldn't let 'em know she's the one running about healing people, could we? Now that she's here, though, I'll throw myself on her mercy so that I'm really not hurt anymore. Make yourselves at home. What brings you out in this mess?" She glances toward Conrad and asks, "And how's Rickham doing? So far, they're keeping a lid on his status."
"I dunno. He's his own thing. I don't really have anything to say or do with Rickham. He can't give me a pardon and he can't give me a job, so he's got nothing I want except potential." Pragmatic as always, Con claims one end of Liz' couch and casually puts his feet on her coffee table. Because she said make himself at home! "Anyway what happened to you? I never asked." He looks to Abby. "And do you ever get worn out or anything? I didn't mean to bring you over here just to patch Liz up." See? He actually is trying to look out for the girl.
"I do. I was sleeping at the bar when you come and grabbed me" Abby's following along behind Elisabeth. "I can sleep anywhere. Habit" Abby has alot of habits. Most of them good. Knew it'd happen when I got here, was why i wanted to stop for coffee" She offers a smile to conrad, watching him get settled in and waits for elisabeth to get settled in before the young woman will find her own seat. Sip. Sip. Sip.
Elisabeth chuckles softly. "I figured Abby'd be by in a day or two anyway… and I actually cooked today to make up for the fact that I'm imposing on her. Made a full pan of homemade lasagne and some garlic bread," she says as she gestures toward the kitchen, "And there are some Ghirardelli brownies, and a shepherd's pie. Who's up for dinner?" She shrugs a bit. "Not like I've got much else to do the next week or two as they clear me for firing my weapon." She looks at Conrad. "I was up on the podium with the president-elect and some asshole disguised as his assistant who tried to laser the guy to bits. Some OTHER asshole from out in the crowd shot me."
Elisabeth's story makes Conrad scowl. "Man they saw us coming. Either that or we really did stick a big old foot out and trip a centipede's worth of feet in a conspiracy." So far he hasn't said anything about his part in what went on. But what little Helena and the others have deduced has no doubt been spread around a little. "Abs, I need you to do me a favor."
"Sylar. Sylar can take people's faces. Maybe it was him" Food. Oh, so that's what she smelled. The much younger woman looks like she might make her way towards the kitchen when Conrad speaks up, asking her for a favor. SHe turns her head first, then the rest of her to regard Conrad. "Always…"
Grimacing, Elisabeth nods. "Given the breadth of powers she displayed, I'm thinking you're right. Superspeed, telekinesis, laser beams… " She shrugs a little. "That's how Sergei got shot — the assistant redirected my bullets into him." She shakes her head and says, "C'mon…. food. Real, homemade, healthy food!" She gimps her way to the kitchen — the lasagne and bread actually just came out of the oven about 20 minutes ago — to pull down plates. "Conrad, come eat." There's even veggies in the lasagne.
"Oh all right…" grouses Conrad in a curmudgeonly manner. He gets up and says to Abby with seriousness, "I want you to pick a day of the week that you can take off and take it off. I don't care what you do. Hell, leave town if you can or if you want to. As well meaning as everybody is, I think they're relying on you too much. Like me with my broken bones and everything? Sure it hurt but it could've kept a couple of days. I don't want you to get used up. That's not fair." He pats Abby on the shoulder once as he walks past her and after Liz. "So. Make me fat, Liz."
"I think I got another father Elisabeth. First time around it was Sergie. Now it's Conrad" Abby's diverting from the kitchen, to peel off her jacket and scarf, sweater beneath that and presumably her bar gear beneath. "See, usually, it seems, these things happen in three's, and seeing as it happened in like…. Sevens.. I intended to. Christmas eve and all, I was planning on it" In other words, it was abby's way of saying yes, she would. "I know my limits Conrad, I really do. I'm sleeping, i'm pouring caffine into me, i'm napping, Teo will kick my rear and nail me down if I won't. I don't live alone anymore. I have to guys to take care of me if I need it. Can I eat now? Am I allowed to eat now? Becuase food means energy, and it smells really good"
Elisabeth glances at Conrad, the faint smile she shoots at him actually containing some level of affection. He's a complete dick at times, but … well, he looks out for Abby, for whom Elisabeth herself is beginning to feel a great deal of affection, and he's been…. damn nice to her. When he's not being an ass. She pipes up as she leans one crutch against the counter and starts to cut into the lasagne with a sharp knife with her free hand, "It's not a bad idea, Abby. But you're a big girl — do what you need to." Meanwhile… she'll just periodically make sure to feed the girl as a thank you for services rendered. "I'll keep Sergei and Conrad off your back."
"Okay but only because you asked nicely." retorts Conrad without missing a beat. He's got his back to Abby at this point and is done being nice for the moment. "Ooh. Lemme have some lasagna. That looks good." He immediately opens exactly the right cabinet for the plates and takes a couple of plates out. "Did you already have plates out for us?" he thinks to ask, a little too late, looking around. The ease with which he found those might raise an eyebrow. Has he broken in here before??
"I think I can handle them both Elisabeth. Like you said. I'm a big girl. Besides, Conrad still has to open his present back at the library" For once, she's not going to insist that elisabeth eat first, but she does wait for Conrad to get his. Stifling the urge to point out that it's the man that serves the females when it comes to dishing out food. But he's take that as sexist and make some smart ass remark and she's frnakly hungry and grateful that Elisabeth even did this all. "Smells good"
There's a pause and a blink as Conrad opens exactly the right cabinet and helps himself to plates. An eyebrow shoots up, but Liz bites her tongue. She won't ask in front of Abby. "It's pretty good, if I do say so myself. My Noni was Italian. She taught me to cook when I spent time with her over the summers." She shrugs slightly, using a spatula to start dishing out warm pasta. "Garlic bread's in foil in the oven. Please pull it out, Con." It'll keep him out of the rest of her cabinets for now. "If either of you want it, I've also got a salad in the fridge." It was lunch for her. "Seriously… I'm on hiatus from work, and getting back to he hospital to sit with … " She flusters, not sure what to call Trask — Sergei or Trask — and opts for his real name, "Trask is insanely hard even with the police escort that will come pick me up if I want it… so I needed something to keep my hands busy." She shoos Abby to the table as soon as her plate's full.
"With a name like Harrison I didn't peg you for Italian." Conrad says to Liz. He opens the oven to peak inside and glances around for a hot pad of some sort to get it out with. He reaches in and pulls it out, making room for it on the range top. "Damn woman. I wasn't serious when I said make me fat." Conversationally he offers, "So, do we feel good about how that business went down with Rickham?"
Aby remains tightmouthed on the issue of Rickham, a look to the two others as she takes the laden plate towards the table. She drops it off, and unlike Conrad, has to open a couple drawers to find the cutlery and get out forks and knives for everyone.
Elisabeth laughs at Conrad. "Mom was a Rossellini. Her parents immigrated to Bensonhurst in the 1930s. Is that Italian enough for you? And you? My Noni would say you're too skinny by half," she says with a chuckle. Once plates are all loaded, she asks Conrad, "Bring them to the table, please. And don't be shy, help yourselves to drinks too." As if Conrad is in any way shy. "I'm not sure what you mean by 'good,'" she replies. "I voted for the guy… and I hope to God that he's as good as his word. Him being Evolved doesn't really change a damn thing for me. I'm not happy about what happened, and I think it's going to happen again. So…. good? Eh… we kept the guy alive. But we made no progress against Vanguard."
"What's this I hear about a present?" Conrad asks, coming to the table juggling softdrinks in his arms. "I didn't vote at all. Hard to register to vote when your Evo Registration is lapsed. I didn't need that headache. Anyway there was a lot of…I was busy then." Setting things down he explains, "I was more or less asking if you think we did a good thing yesterday. Or if we made anything worse."
"There's a present back at the Library for you" That's all that's said on that matter. She's got her coffee to drink, though that doesn't stop the young woman from looking for glasses and once finding three brings them to the table, followed quickly by milk and soda. something for everyone."I dunno. It depends" She's still staying quiet about it all. "Good maybe. I have faith that good will come of it. Perhaps not right away, but maybe, in the long run"
"I hope we didn't make it worse," Elisabeth says quietly. "I honestly don't know what to think at this point. I don't think they'll stop, though, that's for sure." Once everyone's settled at the table, she too settles in to eat.
True to form Con doesn't wait for permission. He's already apportioning out stuff on his plate. "So, I know everything was busy as shit, Liz, but I thought I'd ask like a good trainer ought to," he glances up at her, "how you thought you did with your sound use out there." He looks aside to Abby. "She's almost as good as me." Grin.
Abby says, "She did pretty good. She made sure I could hear her when things started to go to pot" Abby eases down into her seat before she drops her head. Hands coming together to give a little prayer over her own meal. She's nto expecting the other two to do the same, she's never expected others to do it and as quickly as it's started her head is lifted from the silent prayer and she starts shoveling food into her mouth."
Actually, Elisabeth flushes uncomfortably. "Actually, I don't think I even remotely did as well as I needed to. Clearly Sylar's immune to ultrasonic frequencies… He didn't even seem fazed by them, and everyone behind him was puking or reeling. And I accidently shifted into the blow-out-your-eardrums range when I … or rather, when HE made my bullets shoot another cop." She looks more than a little unhappy and worried. "He'll be okay, thank God, but… " She shrugs a little. "I suppose, though, that I did far better than I expected to. The ultrasonics are so damn new to me that I keep thinking I'm going to hurt someone unintentionally."
Forking a bite of lasagna into his mouth, Conrad munches while watching Liz. Then offers, "Had some more success with the subsonic frequencies this time, channelled through rock. Didja feel that earthquake? You know the, the thing they blamed on a gas main on the news?" He picks up the rolls and offers them to Abby. "Roll?"
The roll is plucked from out of Conrads hand, a "thank you' forced out from Abby between mouthfulls. She has manners, even though she's eating like she's starving. "Didn't. Too busy crawling across the street to save the Secret Agent" The roll soaks up some of the sauce from the lasagna and she bites off a bit. "You did what you could Elisabeth, given the circumstance. your alive, everyones alive, and usualy if Sylar is involved, someones usually dead"
Taking bites of her meal, Elisabeth is glad to see Abby tucking into it. The Italian mama in her — the one she didn't even realize existed up til she met Abby — is thoroughly pleased with the fact that the girl's eating. There's even spinach hidden in the lasagne for iron! The gooey mix of ricotta, parmesan, and cottage cheeses, though, is what makes the dish. "I thought I felt something, but I had bullets flying at my primary — didn't have time to think about it. That was you?" She looks thoughtful. "How'd it work for you? Did you actually do damage to the building?"
"I almost brought the whole building down. There was some kind of platoon or something in it, a bunch of armed gunmen. They were shooting." Conrad has a drink, sighs, "Then they dropped a grenade on me." The way he's chowing down it's clear he likes the lasagna.
"His bones were like a puzzle" Another few words spoken between more mouthfuls. Veritbale holy vaccum across from them. 'It's really good Elisabeth. Very good" There's a concerned look over to Conrad, looking him over to make sure he's still, whole and nothing left to touch up with him.
"Shit!" Elisabeth exclaims. "Well, I knew they were shooting from over there — believe me, bullets pinging all around the stage told me that much." She shakes her head. "Good job, Con," she tells him sincerely. "I'm glad you're okay," she adds, with a grin at Abby because she knows exactly who's to thank for THAT. "All in all…. I guess it went okay last night. Abby's right. None of ours died. The cop that got hit with all my bullets didn't die — which is fabulous, I already feel guilty enough that he got hit."
Conrad kind of shrugs and looks at the table while he eats. "The grenade didn't hurt me. I hurt myself getting rid of it because I let off a sonic boom in my own face and didn't have the presence of mind to direct the blast away from me. Stupid." He shakes his head and points at Abby, "I didn't have any idea you were there. I kept telling Helena not to call you until afterward if we needed you."
"She gave me a choice" but giving abby a choice is like… asking a dog if hey, do you really want this nice big juicy raw steak to eat. She'll go. Even at some personal cost. ""Al and Elisabeth kept an eye out for me. I was fine"
There's a muffled snicker from Elisabeth. It's *not* funny — he got hurt. But … well, he's okay and it worked out okay. So… it sort of is. "Dumbass," is what she says about it. "Aren't you the one always telling me to make sure to insulate myself any time I'm using the ability?" She shakes her head as she eats. "Turned out to be good that she was there. She couldn't help Sergei, but she helped the Secret Service agent — he took the first bullet, AP too — and he wouldn't have survived if she hadn't been there. He gave us enough time to actually get Rickham down low."
"I'm glad." Con says brusquely. "and yeah I was stupid. Paid for it too. But I wanted you to know what happened because I shattered some of my bones. Mostly ribs I think." He points at Liz with a fork while saying that. Then shovels another bite into his mouth. "Good job, Abby. Mean it."
"Was close. He'll still need lots of rest. I couldn't give him his blood back. But yes, I did a good job. I'm glad I was there. He'll get a medal, i'm sure. For his sacrafice. Same for Trask. I'm glad that at least Clavins will be present to get it instead of his wife or kid" She finishes up the last bit before looking to Elisabeth. 'May I get some more please?"
There's a grimace as Elisabeth says mildly, "yeah, whatever… we'll all get medals for our parts in all this. After Rickham showsup unharmed. Right now, we're all taking a bunch of shit for losing him — it's ugly." She looks down at her plate. "I'm missing the worst of it, being suspended for shooting another cop. Which is … worse and better, I guess. Trask has already given his affidavit that I didn't shoot at him at all, but it'll still be at least a week until I'm cleared." She glances at Conrad and nods. "Well, when we have the time to work on that kind of skill, I'll remember that. Cuz I *don't* need that stuff bouncing back on me. If I'm going to get out there and use the stuff, well…. may as well get good at it. And we'll both get better for the practice anyway."
Shaking his head at Elisabeth's story, Con says, "So glad I don't carry a gun. No judgment on those that do but I'd be the one to screw up and shoot someone I didn't mean to." He looks around the table and then remarks with a smirk. "Aren't we precious? Like a family. A sick, secretive family living in a poison city. It gets me right here." He puts a fist over his heart. And then burps. "Mm. Good chow, Liz."
Abby just looks at conrad, rolling her eyes. "asshole"
"Pottymouth."
Elisabeth just chuckles at the both of you and eats, somehow ridiculously content with the scene in front of her. A shrink'd have a field day.
 December 20th: Misplaced Trust |
 December 20th: Prelude to Armageddon, Part I |