2008-01-19: A Friend In Need

Starring:

Erin_icon.gif Cass_icon.gif

Summary:

Erin calls Cass after her encounter with Peter in need of some help.

January 19th, 2008:

A Friend in Need


Various

It was a long night spent recovering from the attack, and is notably not something that Erin would ever like to repeat. She's done her own experiments with her abilities, but it became clear last night that what she's been doing isn't nearly enough. She doesn't want to ask anyone for help, but… Cass was there when Erin cured Peter, and she's also offered aid. Reluctantly, the actress picks up her phone and calls.

Things are busy for Cass. There's no other way to put it. She's in the middle of something along the lines of five things when the phone starts ringing. Balancing a whole stack of books in her arms and duck walking as quickly as possible - which really isn't that fast - to her phone, she manages to slide them all onto the counter and flip open her phone right before it changes over to voicemail. "Hello?" she answers, sounding a bit frazzled right off the bat.

Erin's about to give up - she doesn't like talking to an answering service - when Cass picks up. "…Hey. Cass. You okay? It's Erin McCarty." There's a little noise in the background. Despite everything, she's back on the set today, since she didn't get everything done that she wanted to. "I really need to talk to you. It's kinda important.

"No no, I'm fine." Cass takes a breath and tries to exude a center of calm. Whatever that means. She just knows she's used it a lot at Enlightenment. "Hey, how've you been doing? You must be going crazy with filming?" She's heard that that can take a lot out of people, not that she actually knows. When the conversation gets serious, though, it's not much of a stretch to move with the mood. "Of course. What's wrong?"

Erin chuckles a little. "Morgan's taking a break in the script so I can build some new sets. They increased our budget a little." Good ratings will do that to a show. Hopefully Cass is still watching! After a period of silence, though - and the background noise getting quieter as Erin moves off somewhere more private - she says, "Last night I was working late. Peter Petrelli showed up. You know, the one I cured awhile back. I guess he found out about the show. He knew right where to find me."

"That's good that they're not working you too hard." Of course Cass is still watching. When she can. Most of the times she just has to tape it and go back when she has a free moment or two. She's a little behind where everyone else is at right now. "Peter showed up?" That's certainly puzzling. As for how to find her, that's not quite so puzzling. She knows that he picked up the ability to find people months ago, though it's also probably no secret where Afterlife has it's studio either. "What happened?" She's trying to puzzle through why he would find Erin.

Another long silence. "I… felt like there was something wrong. I guess he hadn't slept. He had that look— Anyway, he asked me how I used my ability. Said something about needing to understand it, then I got sick. Really sick. He did it on purpose." The worst part is, she remembers most of it. "I couldn't breathe, Cass. And he just kept going, saying he needed to 'understand.' I don't— He almost killed me." And while she looks perfectly fine today - she has enough control over her ability to fix herself - it still scares her. "I couldn't do anything about it, and I thought… you might know what's going on."

That long silence on Cass' end of the phone doesn't stop any time soon. As Erin talks, Cass starts to pale. That's…that can't be Peter. That's not her friend. "You've…that couldn't have been Peter. He would never do something like that." Peter worries about hurting people, about what kinds of powers he absorbs. He accidentally broke the things in her lab when he thought he was responsible for the virus. Then again, she hasn't seen Peter in days. Weeks, even. "It had to have been someone who just looked like him." But, then, how did they make Erin sick? This makes no sense to her. "Understand? Understand what?"

"That's what I thought," Erin says. Peter seemed like a decent guy when she met him, and while he was sick, he was still polite. Sweet, even. This person she met last night… "I don't know, Cass. It looked like him, it sounded like him— Look, I have a good memory, I have to memorize pages of script on a regular basis. If it wasn't Peter, he's got a god-damned twin." The anger in her voice cals as she goes on. "He wanted to understand my ability. I saw him picking apart the viruses as he was doing it. He… Grabbed my head and killed them all at once. It hurt." She's quiet as she finishes. There's a lot she's not saying; that temper is still simmering. She wants payback.

"I'm not saying that you don't," Cass is quick to appease Erin. But, there's still that hitch in her voice. She just can't imagine Peter doing what the soap star described. That goes against everything she knows of Peter. He wouldn't purposefully hurt anyone. "It just…it doesn't make any sense, Erin. Peter's been my friend. I've been helping him with what he can do. He…just…he wouldn't. It must have been an impostor." There's a frown, though the other woman can't see that. She'll probably be able to hear it, though. "We'll find out who's doing it, though. Get to the bottom of what's going on. I'll call Peter. You're alright now?"

Erin's not stupid, and she knows that it couldn't possibly have been Peter who attacked her. Even so, she's of the strong opinion that there's more bad than good in the world, and she wonders - really - what's stopping her from just getting absorbed in it herself. It seems like her morals are getting in the way lately, and she's getting hurt for it. "I'm fine now," she says, somewhat gruffly. "I need… I really need your help, whenever you're free. I gave them your name at the gate, so they'll let you in. I figured— " She pauses, shrugs, then decides to continue her line of thought. "I figured I could lure you over here with the promise of a set tour."

For the first time in the conversation, Cass sounds a little more lighthearted. There's a short chuckle at the bribe. "It's alright, you don't have to bribe me." Cass purses her lips and look around her surroundings. "I'm…not sure I can get away right at the moment, but let me see what I can do. You kind of caught me at a bad time, but I do want to help." The whole line between good and bad is hard to see nowadays. It's not some clear shape drawn in the sand.

She wants to say make time for me into the phone, but Erin bites back the comment, closing her eyes and wrinkling her nose until she's able to calm herself down. Why not go through a subway and give everyone she passes a horrible cold? She suffered, why shouldn't they? Besides, it's not like they could trace it back to her. "Yeah, that's… That's fine, as soon as you can." She can hear someone calling for her… Time to get back to work. "I'll see you later, Cass."

That frown is back, even after the short break in seriousness. Cass doesn't like telling other people that they have to wait, but right now her plate isn't just full, it's overflowing. And she's definitely going to attempt to clear everything in order to make sure that she can get to the set. "I'll see you soon, Erin," she tells her, certainly planning to make good on that. "Call me if that man comes back. Immediately. Break a leg, alright?"

It's not that she wants to do anything like that. But maybe it's becoming necessary…

There's a future where she goes insane. Not that she knows that, but there must be a reason for it.

She can hold out a little longer; she doesn't really want to hurt anyone. "I will. But I think he took what he needed." Emphasis on the word 'took,' and then the line cuts off.

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