Participants:
| Scene Title | You Have To Choose |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Eileen visits Kaylee at the Speakeasy Hotel, to check up on her and tells the young woman she has to choose between her head or her heart. |
| Date | April 29, 2010 |
After leaving the apartment she'd been sharing with Peter, Kaylee was at a loss as to what to do with herself. Normally, she would have fled to a safe house, but — whether or not if she went peacefully — the kidnapping shook her up enough that she tossed aside the idea. Instead, she decided to go to the first place she ever ran too, the Speakeasy Hotel. It was where Kaylee started her journey into a new life, and… it was a cheap option.
Not knowing when Peter would let her come home again, she rented a room, let people know where she would be and waited…
Kaylee didn't hardly sleep the night before, so when the hazy morning light spilled into the room, it found an exhausted and red rimmed eyes woman. Her clothing is rumpled since she's been wearing the same thing for a couple of day, her hair pulled back loosely to get it out of her face. Standing at the window, her shoulder against the frame, her head tilted to do the same, she looks out into the winter world beyond waiting for Eileen's arrival. A part of her was dreading the meeting.
There is no knock at the door or sound of approaching footsteps resonating through the corridor outside Kaylee's rented room. It would be foolish of the Englishwoman to come see her in person so soon after receiving word of her release, which is why a small bird with a sharp face and a hooked beak dipped in what looks like ink swoops down and hooks yellow talons around the lip of her window sill before turning its eyes past its reflection in the glass. An absence of light in a slate-coloured sky lends the feathers on its wings a bluish black hue that contrasts with paler feathers on its neck and throat, and if the blonde knows anything about raptors, she may be able to identify it as a falcon of some variety.
One streamlined wing extends and brushes its tip against the frosted glass, creating a sound similar to the cool whisper that accompanies it.
Kaylee.
The falcon appearing at the window makes the telepath jump and back away from the window. Normally, Eileen comes to see her in a smaller form when she uses the birds. When she hears the voice, Kaylee gives a relieved sigh and she moves again to fumble with the locks so she can let the large bird in out of the ridiculous cold.
I don't know how birds can fly in this. I can barely stand it.
Stepping aside for the bird, she holds the window open, watching. "Glad to see you… I was worried…" the words trail off, not sure what to say. "Thank you, for coming to see me."
As cold as it is, the falcon does not budge from the window; with a cocked head, it tolerates the wind pulling at its feathers and the fine crystals of ice that have begun to form in the spaces between them. An irritated flick of its wings remedies the situation.
Eileen very rarely does anything without a reason. There is undoubtedly some sort of logic at work behind her unique choice of shape this morning, and there's a good chance it's married to her reluctance to spring inside and take shelter from the cold on the crook of Kaylee's arm.
She anticipates a trap. Are you alone?
"Completely." Kaylee says with a nod of her head, then there is a pause, her head turning towards the room, eyes unfocused as she listens, brows furrowing. "As far as I know. They dropped me in the apartment." Her eyes move back to the widow, lips press together. "I haven't found a mark on me… at least where I can see." God knows she looked. "But that doesn't rule out… anything new the bastards have come up with."
The telepath continues to hold the window open even though the freezing conditions outside makes her shiver, fingers of one hand grip the window frame tight.
I'll find someone to take a look at you as soon as I can. Eileen's voice floats through Kaylee's head, sounding very distant in spite of her physical proximity to the bird. If your memories have been tampered with, we'll know. Claws flex, tail feathers splay, and the falcon shifts its weight from foot to foot without disturbing the snow piled up on the sill except for where it initially landed.
Her ability does not allow her to sense how many people are inside the room with Kaylee, if any. Neither does it give her the capability of determining whether or not the other woman is telling the truth. You should have stayed out sight, she says. Danko. The man with the glasses. Do you remember?
"I know… but I couldn't keep…" Kaylee touches the side of her head with her fingers. "…anywhere too far. It wasn't exactly a hide friendly area." She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, breath frosting slightly. "I didn't have reason to expect they knew who I was. Then there were those suits…" She trails off…
There is moment, then Kaylee gives a firm nod of her head. "Yeah, I remember Danko." Hard to forget him, she still feels dirty after being in his head. "Kinda hard not too."
What Danko has to do with Kaylee's apparent misstep during her meeting with Brennan and the Institute apparently isn't important enough for Eileen to pursue. She lets the subject drop and moves on to the next; if anyone should reprimand her, let it be the pastor whose opinion Kaylee values above everyone else's. Why aren't you at Peter's?
The mention of Peter, the telepath grimaces. "He…" Swallowing, Kaylee has to take a moment to keep a hold of her emotions, didn't use to be so tough. "He told me to leave, because I wouldn't back down about wanting to warn you guys that I couldn't remember and to make sure you all knew I was back. About how I was a target for the Institute and didn't know it, and ended up serving myself up by agreeing to help by going with Dr. Brennan for the meeting."
The young woman has to blink a few times before she turns her head away from the falcon, "I told him I couldn't stop being Ferry no matter what. He…" Kaylee glances at the falcon out of the corner of her eyes, a hand lifting to brush at the moisture at the corner of her eye, "… he didn't take it so well."
Just as there had been no knock at the door, no surprise registers on the falcon's face or in its guarded body language, but birds are more difficult to read than people; the span of silence that follows speaks more loudly than any words do, and Eileen's are very low. It's better that you learn it now, is all she has to say on the subject.
Crouching down near the bird, Kaylee can't help but ask, "Does it always hurt this much? I know what I'm doing is the right thing. It's just… I didn't expect it to be so hard to push away someone like that. He didn't want me to do anything." Her head shakes. "I may have made a mistake Eileen by letting them see me… but… The Ferry needed to know, I needed to own up to it.
There is a small role of her eyes, a chilled hand brushing at the corner of her eye again. "Not that it matters… they pretty much said they had orders to pick me up anyhow. There or at home… That Dr. Broome wanted to talk to me about my father." So either way she would have ended up here. A confused look is turned to the bird, brows furrowing. "They told the doctor I was protected.
"But what about the others? Dr. Brennan? " Kaylee studies the bird. "He tried to keep them from taking me, but once I was negated and those guns were pointed at us, I knew it was a hopeless situation. I don't know what happened to him once I was hooked up to be hoisted into the helicopter."
Brennan is fine. Eileen offers no further elaboration, however, choosing to focus instead on the first half of Kaylee's questions. Until they can find a way to confirm that she isn't a liability to the network, it's unlikely that she'll be surrendering any information that isn't vague and succinct. What hurts more? she asks. Pushing him away or being confronted with the fact that the man you love doesn't respect your decisions?
As Kaylee studies the falcon, the falcon returns her interest in kind as though Eileen might be able to observe some sort of change in her face or a physical mark left by the Institute that she missed during her cursory examination through the glass. You're going to have to choose, Kaylee.
"Both…" Kaylee croaks out softly, brows furrowing as she tries not to start crying in front of the other woman… well… bird. There are no visible marks where she looks, and nothing seems different except for the fact that the smirk, that usually comes so easily to her, is not there, just the sadness. "It all hurts equally, Eileen. And it really hurts to know he's too blind to see what is happening, well more like he ignores it." Despite her best efforts, her blue eyes are watery. "I wanted what he wanted, Eileen, but I can't ignore the world. I can't just sit there and watch you all risk everything.
"I can't stick my head in the sand." Kaylee admits, the pain of the situation still too fresh. "I love him, Eileen… it took him just about dying to realize it, but I know there can't be happiness with what is going on. He just chooses to ignore it all or call his mom when things get a little rough."
There is a soft sigh, her gaze dropping to the floor. "Never thought I'd be pulled so hard in both directions… but in the end… I know where I need to be." Her lip trembles and she bites it hard, leaving indents when she finally manages to say. "That's why I'm here and not running back there."
This is usually the part where the other woman wraps her arm around the weepy one's shoulder, buries her face in her neck and tells her that she needs to break it off. Eileen doesn't, and not just because the falcon's wing doesn't reach that far. He'll see soon enough, she assures her instead. Storm's coming. You feel it, I feel it. Maybe it takes the sky splitting apart, but Peter will too.
The falcon flicks its eyes past Kaylee to explore the room with its predator's gaze as if for the first time. It's identical to all the others on the floor, and Eileen knows the layout well. Kaylee isn't the only person to have sought shelter here in times of difficulty. I should go.
"I hope your right," Kaylee says softly, her head nodding slowly. "Even if he'll push me away, I'll still protect him, like I try to do the rest of you." Though recent events, she doesn't know what happened. Or if they did something to pull the information out of her. "I just hope it doesn't take the rest of us to sacrifice ourselves before he realizes it, cause just what I saw of those men… We need all the help we can get."
The young woman gives a small sniff, the heel of her hand rub at the wetness blurring her vision and slowly rises to her feet. "I'll be here… not really anywhere else for me to be." Kaylee affirms with a touch of unfelt amusement, even as she moves to lower the window and shut out the bitter cold.
With nary a farewell, the falcon leaps from the sill, kicking up a cloud of ice and snow with its wings before it catches the next gust of frostbitten wind and sails away out of sight.
