2008-03-24: Burned

Starring:

Church_icon.gif Lee_icon.gif

Summary: Ouch.

Date It Happened: March 24th, 2008

Burned


Brubaker Secondary School - Church's Office

Lee comes in to see Church a day or so after Futurepeter visited with his scar and goofy outfit. He doesn't look displeased exactly, but whatever is eating him it's beyond simple concern. "Lawrence," he begins, "is there something going on that I should know about?" Well, that's a general 'come clean' request if there ever was one.

The older man's hands are hidden in a pile of papers, his inbox still rather quite large, despite the outbox being full. Church looks up as Lee enters, looking straight back down to his stalled pen. "No. There's nothing going on that you need to know about, mister Jones." The moment of formality is strikingly cryptic, in any case. He keeps his attention on the paper below in an obvious avoidance. "Nothing you need to worry about, either."

Lee says, "Why did Peter Petrelli come to you about a kidnapping, and why did you already know about it?" He's got that I-already-know tone that teachers get.

"Because someone has stolen his mother." Lawrence looks up past an already lowered forehead. "And I know her very well. That's why I knew about it." En Garde.

Lee replies, "No, Lawrence, because if that was all it was, you would have called the police, and if you had, he wouldn't have come to you, he would have gone to the police. He didn't, so you didn't, so it isn't. Remember who you are talking to here." A troublemaker. A jerk. A grade-A asshole. "I'm not a fool." Well, probably not.

"This is beside the police." Church puts an elbow to the desk, leaning on it. "I know you're not, Lee. I'm not either." Why do you think he's dancing all around this? "Her deceased husband kidnapped her." There's where it starts getting tricky for the Law.

Lee says, "What, did he travel from the past before he was killed?" He can't resist a snark even though it leads him down the wrong path. "Don't get involved in this thing, Lawrence."

Telling someone about a not-dead-man appearing is easier than explaining the complexities of The Company. Sure, he wasn't supposed to mention Arthur to anyone, but at this point it seems somewhat moot- and that whole Spook thing is just plain hard to spearhead a conversation with. "I don't know."

"I have to be involved, Lee." Church clenches a fist on the desktop, lips flattening. "I owe her a lot."

Lee says, "The kids need you too. And not to put too fine a point on it, they're more important. Marshall's been in in-school detention getting caught up but he goes back in gen pop next week. I don't know what the drug people's next move is going to be, and if my state achievement scores come in under 30 I'm gone." He shakes his head. "Nothing good ever comes out of that world." The world of powers. "Not ever."

"I know they need me. But so does Angela, and on a time-sensitive level." The pen finally does down, and Church lifts that hand to rub at his forehead. "You're wrong, Lee. About nothing good ever coming of it."

Lee says, self-mockingly, darkly, "I speak from personal experience and sound philosophical and literary bearings." He shakes his head, gets to his feet. "Don't do it. Whatever it is he wants you to do, whyever it is he thinks you can do it." Oh, hm, well, maybe Lee doesn't already know everything. "Do anything else. Remember what happened to Cam. He's a good kid but he'll lead a miserable life forever because of that world."

Lawrence doesn't answer at first, glaring down at the papers on his desk. Angry? Yes. Is he going to explode? Not literally, we hope. "That world gave me a life. Angela gave me a life." His words come through half-gritted teeth. Is it getting warm in here? "Contrary to what you might think, Jones, you do not know everything. You are not the sum of all knowledge, nor are you the fountain of wisdom you wish that you were." Tough luck, kid.

Lee shrugs, callously. "Then, logically, you must be destined to do something really, really awful. Maybe this is it!" He stalks out, angry and trapped.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License