Participants:
| Scene Title | You're Still Just A Kid |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Devon is brought to the Endgame safehouse to give a rundown of what is going on with the pressing situation. His age and lack of experience are brought into question by one who has no filter on her mouth. |
| Date | May 24, 2011 |
Ruins of Cliffside Apartments
This three story industrial structure was once the home of Cliffside Apartments, now just a fire-gutted shell of a building. When an inferno tore through the lofts and studios nothing was spared. Only the crumbling brick walls of the building still remain, roof gone leaving exposed sky to where wooden supports and flooring have all collapsed inward. The skeletal frames of tall studio windows are devoid of glass, and all the shards of people's ruined lives lay buried in heaps of slag and charcoal.
When the text came in this time from Devon, Elisabeth debated the matter for a short while before seeking out Jaiden. "I need you to go meet someone and escort him here," she tells him, blue eyes serious. "He's deep enough now that it's all-in. He needs to know where to retreat if he needs a place off the grid. And he needs to know who to trust." She snaps a quick digital shot of Jaiden with her phone, sends Devon a text with the pic attached that says Starbucks in LICity, 1pm. Looking up at the Australian, she smiles faintly. "He'll find you. He's a kid, don't scare him," she tells the enforcer. "See you shortly."
She is waiting, with a very pregnant Harmony, when they get back. A faint smile is creasing her face as she listens to strong heartbeats while Harmony sits with her feet up. "I have a feeling we're going to have to start coming to you, with that waddle you've got going. Curtis making fun of you?"
Jaiden is the muscle. Since being on the run Jaiden hasn't had a chance to work out as much as he could, but scavenging furniture and running now and again through deserted streets has given him a decent workout so he at least fits the part.
It's interesting, though, that the latte he's chosen is a machiatto soy latte with skim milk in a small cup. He's sitting at one of the tables and, when he catches sight of Devon, he waits to be approached. A quick conversation has them heading off through the subways to the safehouse.
"Got him." Jaiden says into his cell on the way there, just as they enter the underground, giving Elisabeth and Harmony a little warning before they appear. And when they do appear, Jaiden gives the pair a smile. "How're the kids doing? Wiggling around?"
"Oh, no. No, no. Quiiiiite the opposite." Harmony replies, her hands folded over her swollen stomach, sounding as if it is a little bit of an overwhelming subject, raising her brows as she looks at Liz, to push the point in. "He's been super attentive. And he tells me how beautiful I look, and that I'm not getting wide.. even though I am.. and that I'm perfect the way I am and all that," she waves her hand throughout the air as she goes on, "How he doesn't know how I put up with him, and all this other stuff. I mean, we sit and talk a lot. A lot. For the almost the whole day, just.." she shrugs her shoulders, "..talk. It's the most bizarre thing."
Pursing her lips, Harmony wrinkles her nose, "Honestly? Between you an me? I think he has this thing for pregnant girls. And the fact that they're not his? BIG burdon off his shoulders I'm guessing. So yeah, he's got it made. Let me tell you Liz.. Even when we were dating when I was 18, it was never like this. He's like a 16 year old boy. That does not tire out. Like.. at all." This is the kind of stuff girls talk about when they're with each other. It's girl talk.
"When he gets in that "mood", sometimes I just have to go.. Give me a break dude! And you know that's bad if it's coming from me." She doesn't sound like she is really complaining too much, just a bit unconditioned, and eager to talk to someone else about it. Probably an awkward conversation for Jaiden and Devon to walk in on no doubt. But Harmony's mouth rarely has a filter.
She looks up as they arrive, "Hey. Oh.." the girl pats her stomach, "They're still here. And doing their job quite thoroughly. They haven't put in their two weeks notice yet."
If the text that came back was a surprise, Devon gives no mention of it. Just before 1 pm he pushed through the doors of the Starbucks, eyes scanning the crowd. A lingering step draws him toward the counter until he spots Jaiden, and then makes his approach. It's mostly in casual silence that he accompanies the older man.
Appearing just behind the Australian, Devon gives a short wave to Harmony and Liz. Habitually his eyes slant off to take in the building, a casual look that seems more in line with looking for a quick out than anything else. Once satisfied, he gives a small lift to his shoulders, hands sinking into his pockets, attention returning to the other three.
Elisabeth laughs outright at the whole 'gimme a break' thing. "Yeah, I totally feel you there," she admits. "Felix occasionally has to be told 'down boy, it's totally that time of the month and I'm bitchy. Go away.'" But she's aware of the footsteps and by the time Jaiden and Devon actually arrive, she is saying nothing that the men can overhear. "Afternoon, Devon," Elisabeth says as she moves to stand up.
"I figured it was time to put a few faces into your orbit, considering the depths that you've already delved into. You've met Jaiden. This is Harmony." The obviously pregnant one. "Guys, Devon's doing some undercover work at the moment. I wanted him brought here so he knows he has a safe place to retreat to if he needs to go off the grid."
Jaiden leans against the wall near the door, arms crossed over his chest, hands in his armpits, gaze flicking from Elisabeth to Harmony to Devon and back and forth. The conversation on the train and the walk over was mundane - nothing really about where they were going or what they were doing exactly - more a conversation about movies, computers, or travel. Y'know, before all the restrictions. Jaiden would like to go to Greece one day, for example. That's something Devon would have learned.
"This is your main fall-back point, Devon." Jaiden's voice is quiet. With Elisabeth here, there's no need to talk loudly to be heard. "If things go bad and you need to get elsewhere, come here, but not directly. has anyone ever taught you how to not be followed and to lose a tail?"
For a second, Harmony starts to move to get up. But with how she is sitting, She'll have to roll over to her side, plant her hand on the ground, pull one leg free, then the other, plant her other hand on the ground before she does that, to keep from falling over, and then push herself up to sitting before actually having to exert the effort to rise to her feet. She gets as far as grunting and trying to roll before she tosses her hand in a dismissive wave. Yeah, fuck that.. So she'll wave to Devon from where she is right now. "Hey." she smiles.
"Wait a second, under cover work?" Harmony arches a blond brow, "What is he, Cody Banks or something?" The girl gets a good look at the boy. "No offense or anything Devon, it's just.. what are you, like.. 12?" she makes an iffy wince face, "Well.. that's an exaggeration, but you know, you're so young. You can't be more than, what? 16? Come on, dude. You're a little blond tweeny heart throb. You should be kissing the girls and making them cry, and winning medals on the swim team or something. Not getting involved in.. all this." Let it not be said that Harmony doesn't know about flattery. Especially toward the opposite gender. With her looks, it always came easy.
But she sighs, resigning to accept the fact, "That's such a shame. This world is kinda sucks. I home my kids don't start doing that kind of stuff until they're well out of col— Wait.." she pauses, "They share a chromosome with Mr. Danger himself.. That's too much to hope for." Yeah, not a good example there.
"Harmony," Devon echoes with a small nod. He doesn't move past his entry point, choosing to remain where he'd stopped after following Jaiden. "Officially," he says, his tone giving question to the word. "No. I get the gist of the idea for losing people, I can put it into practice, not being followed should be as easy as not drawing attention." Which isn't always so easy, he's sure.
When introduced to Harmony, Devon gives a small nod, but her words first draw a single brow lifting and then a level stare. "I got involved a long time ago," he states quietly, once she's had her say. "And I'll remain involved, regardless of any age theories you or anyone else has, until there's no longer a need to be in this." He watches the pregnant one a moment longer, then flicks a look toward Liz.
Totally not a good example, Harmony. Elisabeth communicates that with the wry face she sends Harm's way. "They share HALF of those chromosomes," she observes. "Give it the hell up. Look what those half have already wrought." In Joshua. Who came TIME TRAVELING to KILL his father. Anyway!
"Devon was approached by someone who needs serious watching. And while I dislike the situation and I want him out of it, he's at this moment the only person who has the opening that he does," Elisabeth says quietly, then turning her attention back to the teen. "Only you get to make the choice to pull out, but if you want out all you ever have to do is say the word." Her tone is serious. "Jaiden's going to be your teacher on spotting and evading a tail. Every chance the two of you get. Graeme or I will help out playing the followers. When I want to test you, I'll send Monica or Claire, you won't meet them until after the fact. I want faces you don't know for exam week," she observes. It's the best way to see if he's learned the lessons. "All right so bring me up to speed on your end of things."
Harmony sighs, placing her fingers against her face and shaking her head, "I'll never understand why we can't just all love each other. It's stuff like this that really puts a fly in my soup. But okay, if that's how you feel, that's on you. I'm just saying, it's a shame… From my perspective. " Being as free spirited as she is, really. Perhaps slightly hedonistic at times, but that is Harmony.
As Liz makes her observation, Harmony waves a hand at her, "Oh, Liz, just let me have this." she groans, "Making light of it is about the only thing that lets me get through the hard facts…" she pauses, "Well.. that and the hopes that one of my kids will either manifest time travel, or grow up and track one down and force them at gun point to take them to go find their father and bring him back. But that's kinda reaching." Harmony is still a bit positive about the situation, after having a small bout of a breakdown initially.
"I'm with you on this, really. I just don't have to like it. And you know I'm not gonna hold my tongue about how I feel."
"Yes ma'am," Devon returns, acceptance for the conditions and training. Even the reiteration of words he'd already shared with Brennan. His hands withdraw from his pockets, but only to grasp the straps of his ever-present pack. "I haven't had any word from Doctor Price regarding Valentin, but I'm also reluctant to toe that line too much. She's afraid of me and I'm better off keeping it that way, keeping her watching over her shoulder. As for the other…" His lips thin briefly, giving thought to the turn of events.
"Doctor Blite …claimed she was afraid, that making the vaccine would be a sacrifice she's not willing to commit to." The teenager's brows shadow into furrowed creases. "After being certain she could do it and in little time than the years it would take. Two weeks sitting on hands waiting for the right time to announce it. I'm no longer certain she'll do it or not. I …gave her an ultimatum that she was less than pleased about."
Oh shit. Ultimatums rarely work out well. Elisabeth rubs her forehead. "How'd she handle the ultimatum?" she asks. "How much threat are you under at this point?" Her concern is his safety in this. "And how credible do you think she actually is? Can she make this vaccine with her ability, truly? Or is she shining you on trying to see what she can get out of it?"
"She didn't," Devon replies evenly. "She returned with threats to discredit me, warned me to take care of who I'm around, because of this new flu." His hands tighten on the pack straps, knuckles whitening while shoulders shift in a small shrug. "There was a subtle threat to myself as well, but nothing so obvious that I could pin her with anything. How much of a threat… I don't know. She's got resources I don't and could easily put me in a box and smash it."
Releasing the shoulder straps, the teenager folds his arms over his chest and lets out a breath. "After the exchange I went to Doctor Brennan's. It seemed better than returning to Dorchester. I don't know how credible she is, and to be safe, Doc gave me a small digital voice recorder and told me to record every conversation I have with her. I'm… kind of nervous, first she's certain she can make a vaccine, then not even a week later she's laying on a thick front of being afraid."
Lines crease across his brow as Devon looks toward Liz and Harmony, then slant off toward a wall. "I don't know what kind of game she's playing. When she arrived for our last meeting, she had this… dangerous look to her. She was distant, distracted, then started in on being afraid…" Closing his mouth, teeth biting onto the inside of his lower lip, he stills his redundancy before it can take over.
Elisabeth purses her lips. She's thinking through what little she knows of this woman and comments quietly, "Brennan's her boss, right?" She crosses her arms and taps her fingers on one. "I think he should be the person whose advice you take in this," she says finally. "You know that you have us behind you if you need anything at all. But if you decide you're keeping on with this, Devon, I want you to use him as your primary resource. He's already involved and willing to help, and frankly I don't know what more beyond just being here for you that we can do." She pauses and considers. "Tell him … " She sighs deeply. "Actually, let me write a message for him. You can take it when you next see him. If he wants my number, you have permission to give it to him." It's a disposable cell, but still. "I don't want to take any chances on putting him or his family in danger by attempting to see him myself, but if he thinks there's anything we can do to help in it, he's got us."
"Well. Girls are dangerous in general. Take Liz for instance.. She sleeps with a gun under her pillow, and one in the nightstand probably. Throw her a surprise party, and you're liable to end up with a bullet in your chest when you jump out of the closet. Me?" she shrugs her shoulders, casually, "I could give you cancer after a few hours of irradiated exposure. Ohh! And if I get intense enough, kinda excited? I can fry all of your electrical devices in one electromagnetic burst." Harmony starts to drum against her belly a bit, "Could she have been distant and distracted about being afraid, maybe? Women think. A lot. It's why there are so many insomniacs among us." she shifts in her seat a bit.
"Tell me.. when you lay your head down to go to sleep, what do you think about? Going to sleep, right? And then you're out.. Know what we think about when we lay our head down? We think about what we're gonna wear in the morning, and eat, and then how other people will react to what we wear in the morning, and if we do eat what we eat, what that is gonna do about our calorie intake for lunch.. and then.. oh god.. lunch.. where will I have lunch? Should I go to Subway across the street? Or a sit down restaurant? Will what I wear tomorrow be suitable for a sit down restaurant?" she cuts it there and looks at Devon, "See where I'm going with this?"
"Yes, ma'am." Devon's automatic response comes coupled with a nod. "I'd gone to him first since he's—" The thought isn't allowed to be completed, Harmony again interrupting the line with a tangent that has the teenager staring at her with that same cold and level gaze as the last time she'd begun speaking. His eyes tick to Liz as she's brought up, a brow raising in a dubious yet impressed manner, even muttering what sounds like that's hot, then flicks back to Harmony. With hands slowly dropping to his sides, he only shakes his head after she's finished speaking before responding himself. "You don't want to know what goes through my head before I try to sleep at night," he states, once again his tone tending toward a quietness.
"I'm doing everything I can to keep Doctor Brennan and his family safe," Devon continues, returning his attention to Liz. "We meet often enough, since the Dome, that my contacting him isn't something that'd cause comment. He's given me the go ahead to go to him or to— If something happens and I decide it needs to end."
Harmony tends to have that effect on people. She breaks their brains with the rather extensively laid out way hers works. And since she generally says what is on her mind, she usually talks quite a bit. Usually it isn't ditzy airheaded stuff. It is usually her own little way of approaching the subject at hand, and she tends to give insight, with a bit more explanation than is necessary. Could you imagine living with her? Nate must be pretty patient. And Curtis.. Well, she did mention that they sit and talk all the time, which probably means that she talks and he just listens.
There is a beep from her phone, the beep tone that the Power Ranger's watches made from the first series. Luckily she is able to reach around to get her purse to retrieve her iPhone, "Look.. maybe all this chick needs is a little understanding, or compassion, or maybe just one good lay that'll iron out the wrinkles in her garb, turning her Death's shroud into a pretty silk dress." She idly comments while keeping her eyes and attention on her phone, pressing the screen. She is just really going by what Devon said about the woman seeming dangerous and such. "Now, you're pretty young, so I highly doubt that you have the experience needed to give this gal the dicking down that'll turn her old sour 'puss' into a purring pet of affection?" she shifts her eyes up at Devon, peering at him fo a second before her attention returns to her phone, "But, all I'm saying is that maybe you just need to be understanding, realize and acknowledge that that is what she needs, even if you can't give it to her. It is the thought that someone cares that really counts. Believe it or not."
Chewing her bottom lip a bit, Harm continues. "Anyway.. It sounds like you have your hands full on this one. And you might actually be in over your—" she cuts it short and her eyes go wide all of a sudden, "Oh! Hey! I got the part!" she exclaims ecstatically.
Blue eyes swerve to the teen and Elisabeth smirks faintly. "It is," she agrees readily. It's also the least of what she can do. "Did you know sound waves can destroy human organs by essentially vibrating them to pulp inside the body?" The question is absolutely casual, but something in the boy's cold gaze on Harmony tells her that he'll get the jist of the warning. "We've all got our nightmares, kiddo," she says gently. "At this point, I don't think you'd listen if I told you to get out. I'm not sure that what you're doing is the right thing, but … in the end, you'll have to make the call yourself. But Harmony's advice is sound — " Oh dear God, Harmony did not just suggest the boy's not good enough to fuck Yana blind? Oh yes. Oh yes she did. Christ. "Listen," she hastens on, "if she's playing a game with you, playing along for a short while might be a good idea. If she thinks you're too inexperienced to outwit her, she might let something slip. But …" The blonde is not holding her breath. "I think it's better for the moment to let Brennan police his own and be the backup in case you need it."
Blue eyes swerve to Harmony. "A part?" Elisabeth asks, somewhat dumbfounded. "Like…. an acting part? As what?" A beached whale? A comatose extra in a soap opera? What?
His eyes tick back to Liz, and indeed Devon does grasp the implications. A slight quirking of his lips gives way to a grin, though it slips off almost immediately after. Then, glancing to Harmony again, the response he might have been building against her continued insistence that he's too young, let alone too inexperienced, is bitten off and bottled up. Much like everything else. Withdrawing just a bit, while hardly moving to show it, his hands go back to his pants pockets and eyes pick out that point on the wall again. "I'm not backing out," he says quietly. "I don't know what good it'll do, if it'll do anything. But it's one fight in the war that I committed to a while ago. There's others out there who can't stand up for themselves and I'm able to." A single glance goes to the two women after he's finished speaking, then downward, falling silent.
She kinda wants to jump up and down a bit in excitement, but that requires her getting up out of her seat, and we've already talked about going down that role already. So she just sorta bounces a little in her chair, waving her hand like the excited girl she is. "Yes, yes! An acting part. I got an acting part!" she looks up at Liz, "It's not a big movie or anything, one of those tweeny things, with dancing and singing it it? It's suppose to happen sometime after I give birth, so I should be good to go with filming there." the girl smirks.
"See, my agent thought it would be a good idea for me to cross over into acting, right? So he set me up to see this produce from LA who just moved back to New York. Phillip Solomon." she waves her hand about in the air, "Well, he's operating out of his hotel room or whatever for right now, which seemed kinda sketchy to me? I totally thought I was being placed on the casting couch for Knocked-Up Knockouts? Porn? But it turns out it was pretty legit. And at first, he was totally not gonna give me the part. So," she shrugs, "I showed him that Harmony Roberts wasn't gonna take no for an answer. Got a bit aggressive, a bit mouthy, and I flirted a little.." she hesitates for a second, "Ok, a lot. But it got me the damn part, so don't go hatin'." She tosses up her arms in victory, "I'm gonna be in movies!" she cheers.
Yes, she can find a sense of joy in all of the mess that is happening. That is her way. Sorry that you're having such a hard time, Devon, but you when it comes to Harmony's view of things? You have to grab life by the balls and make it your bitch.
Elisabeth listens to Harmony silently. Her brows shoot skyward at the name invoked. Fuck. Right. Okay. "Congratulations, Harmony," is what the ex-director of FRONTLINE has to say on the matter. "I guess we'll need to work out logistics for the twins if you're shooting a movie, so…. now that you know you have the part, might be a good idea to start thinking of the practicalities of it all." She smiles, her tone gentle. "I think it'll be a great opportunity for you."
When she runs into Phillip next, she'll have to bite her tongue royally. But that's okay. Elisabeth will make that work too. "Just make sure no hint of anything odd crops up when you're dealing with all the uninvolved types, okay?" This is not the low profile Elisabeth was thinking of when she'd asked Harm to lay low, but … in some ways, maybe this is even better. A public figure of sorts. They won't, please God, be able to make the kids vanish. Maybe.
"Okay," Elisabeth says finally. "Let me write that note for Brennan and you can take that with you, Dev." She grins at the boy. "I'll celebrate with the waddling wonder here and get her home. No more ultimatums on the crazy virus lady please," she adds.
"Congratulations," Devon echoes, offered as an aside. He offers a nod to Liz's words, and hangs around only long enough to take that note. Once it's tucked away safely, he takes his leave and makes the long walk home.