2007-02-11: He's A Good Man

Starring:

Ramon_icon.gif Elena_icon.gif Eric_icon.gif

Summary:

Eric and Elena find Ramon still on the sidewalk after Benjamin was taken, and the two are baffled when Ramon abruptly refuses to call the police or a hospital.

Date It Happened: February 11th, 2007

He's A Good Man

—-

The Gomez Apartments, Queens.

Sighing as he throws Benjamin over one shoulder and carries him over to the SUV, Anders opens the door with some minor difficulty, "What the hell does this guy eat?" he asks no-one in particular, beofre throwing Benji's ass in the back seat with Niki. One far more primatively paralyzed than the other, "Hokey powers ain't much of a match for a good pistol at your side." he murmurs, sniggering.

Ramon watches the SUV race away and lets his head flop back. He's laying on the sidewalk about oh, fifteen feet from the entrance to the apartment or so? His cell phone is open and beside him. He's not unconscious: he in fact looks really freaking grouchy. But his hands and feet aren't moving, and he's probably not laying there cause he /wants/ to be.

Most people in NYC don't just lie there because its good for their health. Eric Walker was just walking home really, he thinking, his backpack bouncing along behind him as he whistles tunelessly in his head. His walk is a quiet enough one, and it just happens to take him down a side street that leads somewhat past Ramon's street. His idle glance just happens to look that way…and he blinks. Someone is…lying there? What the hell. Thats not right…now normally in New York he shouldn't go help…but this time…this time he takes a step over that way…and then blinks. "Boss?" He says softly…before then he's running towards the downed man. "Boss!" He calls out as he gets closer, already sounding worried.

There is a rollerblader coming down the street, wavy, brown hair tousling around her face and a smile on her lips as Elena comes down on the street she lives in. And then she spies something happening right in front of her building, spying a dark-haired young man crouched on the ground next to a familiar figure, and a familiar cellphone. Instead of running away, she speeds up. "Papa? PAPA!!!" Oh god. Oh god. What happened? Was he shot? Did a gang fight break out and hit her father? Her heartrate escalates as she makes a beeline for the fallen man.

"I'm fine. I just can't move my hands and feet," Ramon says, looking up at the two. "I got…" the lines on his face deepen. "Tasered. Or something. I just witnessed a kidnapping. The accountant, Benjamin Winters…they hit him right over the head. Showed up here with my taxes, scared to death. There was a man, and a woman named Angie, and they seem to be working for someone called Bob. Dark SUV. Call the…" he hesitates. Falls silent.

"A kidnapping?" Eric just blinks once, then again shaking his head. "Boss, we need to get you to the hospital, and call the cops!" The young man replies as he tries to help Ramon sit up. A shake of his head before he blinks as the second figure comes running up calling…Papa? Wait. /THATS/ her dad?! THATS HIS DAUGHTER?! Thats the Elena he was suposed to be TAing. That dosn't really matter now though does it. "Can you sit up?"

"He's right, Dad, we need to call the police. If you witnessed a kidnapping…" Elena says, taking in what her father says before her eyes fall on… "…..Eric?" He helped her with Calculus! What the hell was he doing here? She's staring at him, her lips parted just slightly in surprise. How does he know her dad???? But she helps the other man sit up, her fingertips lightly touching the side of her father's neck. "Papa…." she murmurs. Oh god. Oh god. Why can't he move his hands and feet? Make him move his hands and feet!

When that actually works…when Elena manages to get his hands and feet working again…Ramon gives his daughter a hard look. A long look. And then he snatches up his cell phone and firmly closes it. "No hospital," he says, standing up. "Inside. Right now. I don't think the police can handle what just happened. I need to think it through. You too, Junior." His eyes are narrow and dark indeed.

"…Elena?" Eric sounds just as surprised before he shakes his head slightly and helps Ramon stand up. He does at least follow the pair of them. "No hospital? No police?" He sounds rather surprised. I mean if he witnessed a kidnapping, he would call the police…but…um…Ramon is wired and intimidating and and…he's his boss. However he makes a slight face. "…junior?" He mutters. Not even his /parents/ call him that.

"Papa what's going on? What do you mean?" Elena asks, standing up and glancing at Eric. "Do you know what happened?" she asks her classmate, but she follows her father to the apartment, attempting to help him should he need it. "And why were your arms and legs like that? You were poisoned!" That was odd enough in itself - she was expecting her own father shot, not poisoned. And more importantly, HOW did she know that her father had been poisoned? The words just fly out of her mouth, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Ramon stomps up the stairs and ushers them into the house. Then he sets the security system. Firmly. Locks the door. Firmly. And sits down at the kitchen bar, rubbing at his temples. (Also firmly). He sort of grimaces. Panicked thoughts are loud thoughts. They're making him dizzy. Extremely dizzy. He doesn't need to be dizzy, he needs to think.

When they're safely in the apartment, Elena is still waiting for an explanation from her father, frowning - because she wants to help, as spirited as her namesake in the Mask of Zorro. Must get it from Catalina, being the fiesty spitfire that she was when riled. And NO ONE hurts her father, not while she's around. She's making iced tea using a pitcher, some ice cubes, and mix - Lipton, lemon flavored.

Ramon rubs a hand over his face. Over and over again, dry scrubbing it. He looks from Elena to Eric, and then back again. "Alright," he says slowly. "Before I start talking and thinking this through, I need to be sure of something. Very sure of something I suspect. What I need you — sit down, Junior, for God's sake — what I need you both to do is just humor the old man. Can you do that?" Step one, then step two, then step three. That's how things must get handled. Step by step.

"I er…" Eric was pacing, back and forth and back and forth. It wasn't a real series of panicky thoughts anymore, it was just thoughts. Who were they. What happened. Why dosn't he want the police involved. Getting addressed directly though seems to have snapped him out of it and he just nods. "…right boss." He finally says as he looks around and then thumps down in a chair.

"Papa, just say it," Elena says softly, a concerned look on her face. She pours three glasses of iced tea, but she takes two first, setting one down in front of Eric and flashing him a tense little smile, and holding up one for her father. "Drink this," she says. "It'll wash the rest of the toxins in your body away." The next time he pees, but tea is full of antioxidants and her father isn't really one to drink bland stuff so she uses the iced tea mix. It would only help. She picks up the last glass for herself, but she toys with it first.

Ramon downs it. Like a shot, like he so often does. Though he never drinks. At least not since his kids were born. Gruffly he says, "Elena. Think of a number. A color. A day of the week. An animal." He swirls around on the bar stool. "Boy. I want you to think of…a book, a television show, a…mode of transportation and…an explanation for just /what/ TAing someone means, cause I keep thinking 'Tits and Assing' someone and that makes me want to take a pair of pliers and apply it to your anatomy in really unpleasant ways." And then he sits there. Pen poised to write.

Eric gives Elena a slight smile, though said smile is a bit strained, as would be expected under the circumstances. As Ramon starts to talk though he just blinks, curiously. What the hell is he talking about. "…alright…" He says with a slightly wierded out look. However at the last he just blinks once. "I…was…I…thats notwhatitmeans!" He says quickly before he shakes his head and, blushing furiously as he looks down and clears his throat. Book…right…um…Hard Contact. Television…Star Trek…transportation…helicopter. And, the loudest thoughts. 'TA MEANS TEACHES ASSISTANT! IT MEANS HELPING WITH STUDYING!'

"…..alright…." Elena says slowly, sitting down and thinking. Color: Red. Day of the Week: Friday. An animal: Puppy - but she can't afford one and she knows it. As an extra, Ramon picks up surface thoughts as his daughter takes a sip of her iced tea. ~What was Drake getting at when he said that….? What did he mean things slowed down on the bus that day and what did he mean he saw the bullet fire in slow motion? It doesn't make any sense…..he looked so scared when I was mentioning my homework to him…and what's with the tattoo on his neck….?~

Ramon writes: Hard Contact, Star Trek, Helicopter, and Teaching Assistant, so the boy gets to live. Then he writes: Red, Friday, Puppy, did not choose number but started thinking of some guy named Drake and the slow motion on the bus and something about a tattoo. Then he turns the dayplanner towards them, pours himself more tea, and stares flatly at them.

"…thats…um…uh…." Eric just looks at him, his eyes wide open and staring. "…thats exactly right, at least for me at least. How…?" He has no idea how that just happened, he's looking slightly confused, a little bit worried.

When her father is done writing, Elena peers at the Day Planner. She looks confused….and then realization dawns on her. "Wait…so what does this mean? Are you…you know. Psychic?" she asks her father. This day was just weird. She's never even TOLD her father about Drake, and this conversation with him and Activating Evolution JUST happened today. She didn't tell her father any of that. So how did he know? "How is this possible?"

"I don't know." Ramon says. "What I know is this. I know I can do it. I know that lady who touched me, Angie, she didn't have anything in her hand. She just touched me. And I was poisoned. And you touched me. And I was well. I know that you're thinking about a guy who swears he saw a bullet fly in slow motion." He rubs his hand over his face again. "I know that these people took the time to kidnap an accountant, and in his thoughts I heard him talking about what he called the 'freak hospital.' I know the male of the kidnappers also mentioned a 'hospital.' So now you know why I'm not sure the police even can handle this. Or that they aren't in on it. Now you know why I didn't want to go to a hospital. Sorry to drag you in, boy. I needed…someone I didn't know well to test on. Whenever I answered things Elena or other family members said before they said them, I just always assumed I knew them so well that I was picking it up."

The book. Elena glances at her backpack, and she reaches out to unzip it and pull it out. She stares at the blue cover, running her fingertips over it. But…that didn't make any sense. It was all THEORETICAL. How was this possible? "I….I just thought you always felt better whenever I soothed you. I didn't think…." she says faintly. And if that were true, and what Drake was saying is true, then….suddenly she feels bad for doubting Drake. If Ramon COULD read minds, and some woman out there can poison people just by touching them….and there was a 'freak' hospital and people were getting kidnapped…. "Wait. What accountant? Did you pick up why they would want to kidnap him, Papa?" she asks. Because if the accountant was 'weird', too….

Eric just stares from one of them to the other, his eyes wide. His thoughts are a confused mess before he glances down at his hands. He dosn't say anything for a long time. "…your…talking about stuff that shouldn't be possible…" He says with a slight shake of his head. His speaks slowly, but…Ramon would at least note the hopefully little. ~But maybe…maybe I'm not crazy then…~ A stray thought that leaks out.

"No. I can only pick up what they thought about. But he was scared they were going to take him away, so lets postulate yes, yes he was." And then Ramon looks hard at Eric. "Out with it, boy. What can you do?" His eyes are narrowed, glimmering, dark. The lines around his face are deep indeed. "Chiquita, I want you to call your Grandmother. If we're right the whole family could be in danger, and Manny, Nita, and Luis are going to need to stay with her upstate for awhile."

"I need to call Drake too," Elena says. She feels safe with Ramon there, and Eric too since she knows him a little bit. But Drake DID look nervous and scared when he tried to talk to her about this in Noodle House, and she feels worse thinking about it. If her father believes it…. ~Oh god, I thought he was just….I thought he had some sort of brain anomaly…~ She can't help going by the logical route, she was going to be a -doctor-. Her background so far was in hard science, not CRAZY science. She stands up to head for the phone, to call the grandmother.

Eric's head snaps up towards Ramon, his eyes widening. "I…" Well its real hard to actually lie to a telepath isn't it. He just swallows once before he shakes his head. "…here…" He murmurs softly. "…its easier to show." He says, not looking at the pair of them. He holds his hand out, and a globe of pure darkness forms in the palm of his hand, just hovering there for a moment before changing shape. Its a book, a dragon, a little man, a little cup, then it disappears again.

Ramon's eyes widen. Just a little bit, they do. "Make sure you show that to Elena when she comes back down," he mutters. "It helps having proof. We're a family of concrete people. That means you're probably in some danger too." He scratches at his beard. Now that they've established this much, and taken some steps, he has to think further.

Rapid Spanish can be heard in the other room, Elena explaining to her grandmother than Manny and Luis were in trouble again and that they would need their grandmother's stern hand to keep them in check. When the conversation is over, both men could hear her dialing another number. Silence…..and then, she sighs. "Drake? It's Elena….listen when you get this, can you give me a call? It's about ….what we talked about at the Noodle House. Something happened at my apartment building and it got me thinking…..yeah. Um. Could you call me back? Thanks. Bye." She had to leave him a message. She turns to walk back over to where her father and her classmate are, looking at the both of them.

"…you really want me to show her?" Eric is asking Ramon as she is coming back down the stairs, looking at his hand. "…I've…only told one other person, and it scared them so bad that they made me promise to not do it anymore." The young man murmurs softly, seeming almost shamefaced about it all. He shakes his head though, snapping his head back up as Elena enters the room again and looking somewhere between suprised and a bit worried before he looks back at Ramon. "I mean I will if you think…its best…"

Ramon rubs a hand over his chin. And tugs on his ear. "Eric," he says gruffly. "Right now we all need a little verification that we're not fucking nuts. So. Yes." He stands up and yells into the other room, "KIDS! PACK YOUR STUFF. DO NOT ARGUE." in Spanish. And then flops back at the bar.

"…..show me what?" Elena says, looking a little confused. "Papa?" Her dark eyes fall on the cute TA, her head tilting slightly at him. Meanwhile, Manny and Luis, from the back room, shuffle and groan in their laziness, but they do start packing. Juanita does this dutifully of course. Elena, however, is remaining behind. If her father packed her off too, she WILL argue about it. She has a scholarship to keep. ;_; But her gaze focuses on Eric intently. "….Eric…?" she ventures softly, lifting her hand to touch his arm lightly.

Eric just smirks ever so slightly, seemingly a little more alive, his eyes just a little more bright as he looks up towards Elena. "…who would have thought that your dad is my boss." He says after a moment. He'll confess he thought she was cute later, and that she understands that she just doesn't swing his way. Thats totally cool though.

He shakes his head slightly before he sighs and raises his hand again. "Show you this…" He adds after a moment, glancing towards Ramon then back to Elena as he creates a globe of darkness in the palm of his hand again. Then a slight frown again, and the globe grows to swallow his hand and he blinks slightly, surprised himself.

Ramon is too overwhelmed by other problems to worry about them thinking each other cute. For once. And no…he did not pack Elena off. Because she's an adult with a job and a scholarship, God help him. He stares at the little globe again, then watches it swallow the man's hand.

"…your boss? You work at RTS? You said you were a tech, but I didn't think…" Elena says, inclining her head at him with a smile. But when he lifts his hand to show her that trick, her eyes widen at the globe of pure darkness that appears in his hand…and engulfs it. She hesitates, but she doesn't seem scared. She's seen scarier - like Richard Simmons exercise videos - and she reaches out to touch the darkness and watches her finger disappear inside. "Wow…." she says. "That's crazy." Crazy, but fascinating. She was on her way to becoming a mad scientist of Reed Richards-esque proportions. SCIENCE!

"…yeah…first day on the job was yesterday," Eric says with a slight smile as he leans back slightly. He glances up at the both of them. "…its just…you know…darkness." He says after a moment. "…though I can see though it. Its nothing else…at least I don't think. I…never really experimented with it." He says honestly before be glances to the pair of them and almost self conciously drops the darkness field, letting the light dissipate.

Ramon is very quiet. He sits down, listening to the younger kids pack. He opens up his taxes to the biggest refund number he's ever seen. "This guy. Benjamin. He did my taxes for free. He was scared to death and took the time to show up at my house and not only deliver this, but took the time to leave me in the hands of someone he trusted. He's a good man."

"Darkness is just the absence of light," Elena says, pulling her hand away and rubbing her chin in thought. "I think this ability of yours might have something to do with some sort of mental control with the photon particles in the air…I'm not a physicist or anything, but I remember basic light science. Like color - color is just light reflected off a surface." She can't help it, there's a gleam in her eyes, that thirst of learning. Science was growing to be her passion, her first love in life. "Eric maybe we can test this. Different permutations, see how big of a range your control expa—"

Her growing excitement is dampened by her father, who mentions what he does. She looks over at Ramon and her face falls from gleeful at the discovery of something new and REAL…to something serious. She falls quiet. The proactive demeanor wants to suggest 'Then let's go out and look for him using your mental thing!' but she knows her father, he'll tell her it's out of the question.

"…maybe…we should try to find him then?" Eric is the one to give voice it, even if he didn't know what Elena was thinking. The young man seems to sit up, before blinking slightly at Elena. "…it is the absence of light…well not really absence, its like I can change the photon particles to actually /absorb/ light, I don't actually change the light source but I change the…" Pause. "…oh…sorry…" He pauses a moment, looking very sheepish as he shakes his head. Though for a moment it looked like the two kids were about to get really techy in their talk. Oh, and when she put her finger in, it didn't really feel anything different…like a featherlight touch and a bit more cold is all.

Ramon's lips make a thin hard line. "He tried to help me somehow and got pistol whipped for it." He stares at his daughter and this boy he hardly knows. He caught the 'we'. "These people are dangerous. I can't put you two in even more danger."

She grins over at Eric. "It's okay," she assures him, reaching up to gather her long hair in a twist, pulling two tresses forward to frame her face as she looks at her father. "So what are we supposed to do then, Papa?" she says. "Eric can't exactly forget this even if….these people don't know about him, and I'm not just going to sit around here by myself while Grandma takes care of the kids while you run off to deal with people with guns. I'm coming with you…..I mean….I can't read minds but….but I can help you figure stuff out." Elena doesn't seem sure yet that she's 'special' like her dad and Eric, but Ramon is STILL her dad and there's no way she's going to let him deal with dangerous people without her.

"Oh…" Eric blinks, oh they have guns too. Thats not good, that just adds too more of the not good. His mind drifts towards asking his father…but no. No he won't involve his family in all of this stuff. He squares his shoulders slightly before he looks up at Elena…and just mindfreezes a moment. ~Oh holy stuff and things she is attractive~ He shakes his head then after a moment and blinks. "…well…she's right you know. I can't just forget everything, and I neither of us an just sit around. I mean we have school and work…"

"I told him you're gay," Ramon tells Elena in Spanish with a resigned sigh. As if that were even something that were important in the grand scheme of things. And then he switches back to English. "Alright. Then we'll do something. We don't have many leads, but we'll work together and figure something out."

"….what?" Elena says, looking at her father confused as he sighs. And then, it dawns on her. "WHAT?" She looks at Eric. "Did my father tell you I was gay?" she wonders out loud. Oh god. "…..you didn't TELL anyone else did you? At school?" she sputters. "Because…you know, I'm SO NOT." Oh god. She hopes Eric didn't because….that would suck meeting anyone cute at the Phi Kappa Phi's Winter Luau thing next week on campus. She'd been dying to go for weeks, desperate for some respite from school work. She turns pink over the cheeks. Aw, how cute, any more and she'll be -flailing-. But she takes a deep breath. Focus. She'll shake Eric later if he did say something to NYU's collective student populace. To her dad, she nods determinedly.

"…well…" Eric's eyes are all wide. "Yes he…did…say something about that," He looks like she's shaking him, even though she isn't shaking him. "I didn't tell anyone…though…I might have mentioned something too Mick…he's…my best friend since high school…" his eyes are all wide and looking towards the pair of them. Though his thoughts are more like ~THANK GOD! SHE'S NOT GAY! Cause…she's really damn attractive! Not that I have a chance, but…~ Yeah yeah…so he doesn't have that high an opinion of himself. However he does nod towards Ramon after shaking his head to clear it. "…I'll…head on home then."

And as Eric starts to leave, Elena hops off the couch to RUN AFTER him. "Wait a minute! Mick, who's Mick??? How much of a gossip is he? How many do you think he told?? Eriiiiiiiiiiiic~~~" Oh god. This was the worst day ever!

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