Participants:
| Scene Title | You Don't Have To |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Another Sunday, and service attended by Richard and Abby and a choice made, just in case. |
| Date | April 25, 2010 |
Baptist Church
Another sunday, another church service. No sunday best, the population low for the service due to snow, cold and people believing that God would rather them survive than brave the cold. Abigail's once more near the back of the church, listening to the sermon, quietly enjoying the time out of the house and giving Francois and Teo time to themselves and without the southerner in the house. Houseguests, like fish, are rarely good after 3 days and she's trying to do her best to no impede on the two men.
Cardinal is there too, she can see him parked on the bench, the tattered edges trailing in some unseen and unfelt breeze. Without a need to say otherwise again and to give the tweedles time inside a building and warm and partake of the after service social with it's free food, Abigail hightails it as fast as crutches allow to the one room once more. Warm skirt, shirt, sweater, scarf, she's easing through the door, shifting to kick the door shut with a crutch and give them some privacy.
"Shouldn't you be at a church with penguins instead of a Baptist congregation?"
A whispering little chuckle stirs free of her shadow as Cardinal peels himself away from her, spilling lazily up the side of the wall as a tattered spectre. "…funny you'd mention penguins. I ran into a flock of them yesterday… no idea where they came from. Escaped the zoo, I suppose… I had flashbacks to that island we were at before Antarctica…" Marion Island…
"They escaped from the zoo in central park, because of the snow. The polar bears are loose too so tell everyone to be careful okay? I've never gone to the park to see them before. Never really went to the park in truth. Well, the zoo. Been to central park plenty of times before" She picks her way over, hooking a chair to shuffle it towards the couch, some place to put up her leg when she eventually gets down onto the couch. "Liz told you?"
"Polar bears? Jesus…" A pause, the living shadow of Richard seeming to tilt its head, even if he can't manage all that good of a humanoid form anymore, "…no, told me what? I just… thought I'd come see how you were doing." Were doing…
"I manifested. Probably, Maybe. Peter thinks I did, Liz thinks peters full of … shit" Up goes the casted foot, made comfortable as she lays back. "I don't know what it is though Richard"
"What happened?" The shadowy form shifts its amorphous, rent shape, patches of light drifting through him, "What happened to your leg too…?" Your leg?
"I don't know Richard, and my leg, my leg is my leg is my leg and there's nothing that can be done about it. Peter's determined to find Kozlow and copy his power so that he can heal it" A hand comes out to wriggles fingers over the shadow and peer at him. " I don't know if it's healing Richard, It's something. Peter's trying to figure it out, and meanwhile, I'm just trying to keep from touching anyone and stay calm and deal with the fever the formula's given me"
"You're avoiding the question." A murmur from Cardinal, who knows when the girl he's haunted and protected for the past year on and off is dodging a subject. As those fingers slide over the shadow, he's silent for a moment, "I'm sorry. I… maybe this was a bad idea…" Idea…
"I'm avoiding the question until I know the answer Richard and don't you dare be sorry. Not in the least. IF you aren't sorry about stopping that bomb with your body, then 'm not sorry about taking something that works, so that you can get back that body. Sorry won't change what happened, nor will they make me hurt less"
Abigail crooks a smile down to the shadow. "Besides, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have discovered the joys of laying on a couch with Francois singing Soft Kitty" She points out.
"If it doesn't help at all, though…" A whispered sigh from the shadows, and then Cardinal emits a wryly amused sound, "…you and Francois dating now, or something? I don't even know what Soft Kitty is…" Euphemism?
"Francois and Teo are dating. Francois and I were just both on the same painkiller and very.. High. Soft kitty is a song one of the girls at the bar sings, said she got it off a television show." If it doesn't help though. "I know a healer. I can get peter to him Richard. If this doesn't work, there's a back up. We'll get you back to where you can make babies in Tahiti with Liz okay? I promise. I'll go to the ends of the earth to do it"
"Thank you…" A reverberating murmur from the shadowman, the tattered shreds of him spilling down over her arm and shoulder, "…you don't, you don't have to, though. God knows you've done enough for me." Don't have to…
"God knows, Richard" She murmurs back, a deep sigh as she relaxes in the back room. "I don't have to, but I do, and you know that by now. I don't know where peter has hightailed it to, maybe Vegas, who knows. But I'll get a hold of him, take him to Sasha. He can copy Sasha's healing and maybe that will be enough Richard" One hopes that it will be enough
"Wouldn't he be at his apartment…? I'd go visit him, but, well…" A derisive twist of Cardinal's voice, "…when I went to ask him if he could find someone's power that could help me, he turned me down and called his mother and fucking Sarisa on me. So I don't think he's going to be very useful, Abby…" Damn Petrelli…
"No ones told you he's my Ambulance partner have they? I can make his life hell, like refuse healing so that he's stuck with the Vegan on his shift. Richard, I can ask, it can't hurt can it? I mean, unless healing you means it'll kill him, but… " She'll try, she can try. "That's, that's if this, whatever the Formula gave me, isn't healing"
"No, he's just a fucking coward," Cardinal mutters in her ear, "Sticking his head in the sand in the hopes everything will go away. It's like he's forgotten everything that's happened or something…" Or something…
"Language Richard and no, no he's not. He's the baby brother of the president and one of the matriarchs of New York society. He's been a lot of things, and after helping save the world and playing host to Kazimir, he's a guy who just wants a slice of normal before the world drags him back in. I envy him, his ability to just put blinders on. I can't do that, but if he wants normal for a bit, then who am I to keep him from that? All I can do is ask him"
"His right to put on blinders ends where him fuc— messing with my life begins," insists the shadow in a snort, "But fine, go ahead and ask him."
"I"m proud of you Richard, only one syllable before you stopped yourself" Abby grin, starting to haul herself up and gently ease her leg back down to the ground. "I'll ask, that's all we can do. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, he'll so it. There's always… Gabriel"
"…you're high," Cardinal replies dryly, "You think I'd trust Gabriel with his hands on me while I'm vulnerable?" Sylar?
'As a kite" Abigail murmurs, Crutches slipped under her arms and with an oomph and a squaring of shoulders when one side of her ribs protests, she's plodding off for the door. "Desperate men Richard, do desperate things"
"Arthur used my power to kill already, Abby," Cardinal whispers quietly, "Never again."
"A lot of things we say never again, sometimes though, we mean it. I have to go, before the agents get swarmed too much. I know Bethany was eyeing up one to give him her number. I'll send word, if I find out anything more and can you tell Liz to just.. jsut not touch me?"
"Alright…" A sigh whispers through the shadows, "…take care of yourself, Abigail. I'll see you around."