Starring:
Summary: Jane meets Hailien to share information.
Date It Happened: February 22nd, 2007
Of Sylar, Sandwiches, Guys, And Guitars
Midtown East, Lower East Side, Noodle Heaven
Somewhere near Times Square, moving toward the East village, Jane pulls her phone from the pocket of her charcoal grey business suit. It's placed to her ear and a number dialed, the one given her by Hailien Hunter. She takes a slow breath as she waits for it to be answered, mulling over just how to share what she has to pass along.
The song that Hailien has on her cellphone is oddly about soccer, but long stories take time, so she won't explain even as she makes her own way up to Times Square. "Hey, it's Hail. What's up?" She asks Jane, quietly.
"Hail," she replies, her voice sounding subdued, "It's Jane. We met and talked at Common Grounds a while back. I… learned some information to share with you."
Hailien pauses where she is on the street. "Oh jeeze, Jane." She says. "What'd… you find out? Should we meet?" She inquires, finally moving again so she won't attract attention.
"I think we should," the woman replies, taking a look around. "I'd suggest the coffee shop, but… it burned to the ground. Shame, too, I liked that one. Where's good for you? I'm east of Times Square right now." Jane starts looking around for quiet places to converse.
Hailien sighs softly into her phone. "Yeah, I heard about that." Then a pause. "East of Times Square? So am I. I don't know what's around here, though. Maybe go to Noodle Heaven?"
"Where is that?" Jane asks, starting to look around for the girl on the street as she speaks. "That'd be a new place for me, so it's good to try out." She chuckles. "Can someone really find heaven from eating noodles?"
Hailien giggles. "Noodle Heaven doesn't even sell noodles, Jane." She informs her. "Sandwhiches and soup, but no noodles." She giggles some more. "And I don't know."
"If there's soup," Jane opines, "there must be noodles. I'm headed there, or at least hope I am." Turning, the woman heads into Times Square and seeks the place out.
Hailien laughs! "You're probably right, Jane. I'll meet you there." She stays on the phone as she idly makes her way over to the Lower East Side; not a long trip, but long enough.
It takes Jane a bit longer to get there, as if perhaps she went the wrong way at first and had to double back. A cab drops her off a short time later, with her phone still open. Stepping from it, clad in a charcoal gray business suit with skirt and complementary pumps, her hair pinned up professionally, the woman walks toward Noodle Heaven's entrance.
Hailien is in her normal, traditional blue outfits, but as her coat hangs open, a combonation soccer and softball jersey is on, and smudges of dirt can be seen. She walks over to Jane when she sees her arrive; the girl then follows her in after a short nod to the woman.
"Hey," she greets, closing the phone on spotting Hailien and making her way inside. "Thanks for coming." Jane holds the door as she steps through.
"Well," Jane starts, drawing a slow and deep breath as she also sits and lowers her voice to one expected to only be heard by the girl, "There are a number of people like us, who can do unusual things, and there are organizations involved with them. One operates under the front of a paper company." Fingers reach for the menu, but she doesn't look at it. Her attention is on Hailien for the moment.
Hailien stares briefly at Jane for a moment. "I had an idea." She says, voice hushed as well. "I mean, at the bank robbery; a woman tossed one of the robbers across the bank! And she was small, petite, pretty! Not built for that stuff, I mean… what paper company?"
"Bank robbery?" She blinks a bit, stating "Hadn't heard that one. Super strength. Anyway, the company is called Primatech. There's this guy who works for them, I was told, who can make talents not work and affect memories." Jane doesn't elaborate on that, she simply lapses into silence and affords an opportunity to absorb, to process.
Hailien nods. "Bank robbery… the one where the robbers ended up in the floor… that was me." She admits, looking down at her hands. "Talents not wo- affect mem- …" Hailien stares at Jane for another long moment. "Oh, Jane you don't think their? …"
"I don't know," Jane admits. "I think you were captured by them, and that's where the marks came from. The memory loss also, possibly. The man who makes talents not work and affects memories, he's said to be tall, dark skinned, a man from Haiti. My contact said she'd seen his face. She also believes the memories aren't gone, just suppressed." She pauses a moment to chuckle, remembering something said, as admiration crosses her face. "Bank robbers sunk into the floor. Nice move."
Hailien beams at Jane. "Thank you." She remarks, quietly. "Passed out at the end though, nearly got shot, that things." She rubs her neck where the marks can just barely be seen now. "Oh jeeze, Jane. We've got to find these people and ask them if they… had our experiences."
"I've not been captured by them," she remarks softly, "but I was identified. There's more than one organization involved with us. Besides Primatech, there's something called the Linderman Group after political power, and a thing called the Foundation, run by Arianna Rockford-Johannsen. She's my contact, who I learned all this from." Jane's silent for a moment before adding "There I was, on the Upper East Side having lunch, when she joined me suddenly and introduced herself. Apparently one of her associates saw my first… experience with my talent and made a report."
Hailien nods. "Well, still.." She says, taking notes in her cellphone on all of these companies and people. "Dear gods… " She says, softly, staring at her. "If all of these people know, can we be sure it's just not this one Company tagging people?"
"We can't," Jane states quietly. "But I trust Rianna, she at least contacted me up front and was honest. She also answered questions I had, and gave me some contact information. Her aim with the Foundation, as she put it, is to help the children of the future. Us. I told her I wouldn't give her names or anything about others I know, but I would tell them about her. Up to them if they want to make contact or not."
Hailien nods. "Alright." She says, sighing. "Is she wanting us, the children to contact her? Because I will. I swear I will. Anything to find out what's going on."
"I think she'd like to hear from us, certainly. She's told me there are lots of abilities, just about anything we might imagine." Jane pauses, shaking her head for a moment, and presses on. "Recently I met two guys who teleport. That's turning into an adventure in itself." And here the woman's face turns grave. "I've been cautioned to be very careful, Hail, I recommend you do the same. Try to avoid being seen doing things people shouldn't be able to do, you never know who might be watching. There's a man out there somewhere who hurts people like us and takes our talents. I don't know what he looks like or anything, just a name."
Hailien blinks. "So that woman I saw, she's probably been, um, tagged… whoa… teleportation? Seriously?" She squeaks. "That's so awesome. "It's like my power, probably, except… faster." She snorts. "Just a name… what name, exactly?"
"Sylar," Jane replies quietly. Her tone of voice suggests what she's been told frightens her. Her eyes settle on a distant point for a few moments, then lower to the girl across the table. "The woman at the bank who threw robbers? She might be tagged, I don't know, but… the marks you have seem to be the badge of it.
Hailien blinks at Jane, and her eyes narrow. "Sylar… he doesn't sound like a good person." She says, quietly, Jane scaring her slightly. "Look, I see her around, actually, often. I'll look. I'll start looking around. Talk to people. And such."
"He isn't, Hail. So be very careful." Her eyes close for a moment, as she muses "Sometimes it all makes me want to scream, so much I've started to see and learned. It still occasionally feels like a hurricane in my brain. You said your parents know all about you, and they're cool?" Fingers take up a menu and open it, Jane looks through it slowly.
Hailien nods slowly. "All right." She says, taking a deep breath. "They know. Trust me, I've felt the same way. It'll be eight years I've dealt with my power when it's my birthday, eight years of not knowing what to do, exactly."
Looking up from the menu, Jane's finger rests over a spot and indicates it for the girl. "See, there are noodles at Noodle Heaven." It's the entry for chicken noodle soup. A smile spreads briefly, even if only at her own humor. "One of the teleporting guys, he's… well… really easy on the eyes. We were talking, after I had one of my… outbreaks," her eyes lift as if to explain what she means without verbally saying it, "and he told me what he could do. Showed me. Then he vanished and reappeared a few minutes later. With roses."
Hailien giggles. "Alright, I give you that point." She says, to the noodles. Then Jane starts speaking, and she gets a deligted grin on her face. "Jane, that's just… cute. Awesome. Real awesome."
"Yeah, it is," she agrees, wearing something of a dreamy expression." Jane's eyes lift, she spots and flags down a server. "I'll have the ham and cheese on rye, with mayo, please. And pepsi." The server nods, writes it down, and turns to Hailien as if to ask her choice while Jane sets her menu aside.
Hailien giggles slightly, then rattles off her order. "I'll take the steak panini with extra mushrooms, no onions, extra mayo, and a Pepsi as well."
As the server departs after writing down the second order, Jane remarks wistfully "Now I feel worried about him sometimes instead of just me. It's all weird, scary, and thrilling at the same time." A pen comes from a pocket, she writes down the Times Square address of Rianna's foundation, the main business phone, and another number. "This one I'm told is answered 24/7, if you call it say you want to make contact with Ms. Rockford-Johannsen, and that Doctor Forrest referred you to her." She circles that one and slides it across.
Hailien giggles softly. "I kinda feel the same way, about a boy I like." She admits quietly, before she stashes the piece of paper away underneath her jersey. "Thanks, Jane."
"You're welcome," Jane answers with a nod, and her eyes settle on that jersey. "Are you defense, offense, or midfielder, Hail?" The server returns with the colas and sets them down, then departs again. "I played some sports here and there in school."
Hailien peers at her jersey. "Soccer, defense. Softball, midfielder. Not offical school teams, but that's where I'm at at my rec center's games. Drake gave me th einspiration."
A nod. "It wasn't my best thing, but the school encouraged it and the parents insisted. Something about being a 'renaissance woman', with a dabbling in lots of areas. Broad horizons and all that. They kept talking about Da Vinci, and the founding fathers, how they went about life. It turned out they were right, I feel better for having done it," Jane comments. "Do you think you could someday be the next Mia Hamm?"
Hailien shakes her head a bit. "I doubt it." She says, grinning. I still haven't told Drake I started even playing soccer. It's his sport mainly, and I'm probably going to get him to teach me more." She sighs wistfully at Jane's parents. "I rarely see my parents, so, y'know, it's kind of different for me."
"They work a lot?" she asks, quietly. "My father worked a lot too, insurance is his thing. Family business. Mom was around more, but she was fairly deeply involved in the DAR and things like that. It wasn't like they were around so much to be annoying, but when we did talk they were always pushing their worldview. 'Be the proper young lady of breeding, Jane,' they'd say. And I did it. I found ways to make them happy and please myself too. The first passion is and always was music." A drink is taken from her cola, then the glass is set down. "Sports are good for girls. Confidence, teamwork, self-respect, they help with all that."
Hailien smiles. "My mom's a pre-school teacher, both afternoon and morning. So… she's not around a lot, and she's normally busy keeping track of the kids. My dad's a computer programmer; he sometimes works late, so…" She sighs. "My mom always told me reading was a trait; it made me smart, and wise, and intelligent. I tend to agree with her, I think.
Food arrives as Jane seems about to speak again, she eyes hers and prepares to bite into it. Once the task is done their server moves on, and her sandwich is lifted. As she chews slowly, a thoughtful expression seems to settle in upon her. Fingers tap the table in a rhythmic pattern, as if a song were in her head.
Hailien watches Jane as she devours her panini and soda.
A few bites in, with her fingers still tapping out a tune, the lawyer/guitarist stops and shakes her head a few times. "That doesn't quite work right there. It needs something, maybe a different chord. I'll have to play it out on the axe and work it through…" Jane then seems to realize she'd gone off on a tangent and comments, blushing, "Sorry. Had something come into my head and followed it a bit, but it isn't quite where it needs to be."
Hailien giggles slightly at Jane. "I'd like to hear that when your done with it, then." She admits. "Maybe you can teach me a bit of the guitar, maybe?"
"I could," she replies with a grin, as fingers lift her sandwich again. "Are you right or left handed, Hail?" Jane's eyes regard the girl quietly, and she asks "How quick are your fingers? One of the trickiest parts is moving from chord to chord on the guitar's neck while pressing down two or three strings at once." And a bite is taken.
Hailien grins. "Right handed." She remarks, flexing her fingers. "I don't know how fast, we'd have to see." She adds on, lightly. "Nothing like checking to see, right?"
"Exactly," she replies with a laugh. "I'm a righty too. If you were lefty you'd need a guitar strung backward, or have to play it upside down." Jane continues on with her food from there, soon finishing it and draining the last of her cola. "I should be going now, got some calls to make and people to look for, so… I'll call you soon and set up a guitar time?" Her pen is used to write down an email address on a napkin and pass it across.
Hailien coughs. "I don't think it'd be easy to learn that way!" She admits, grinning broadly at Jane. "Alright, Jane." She says, taking the email address. She'll add all of this to her phone later, so.
An amount of money is left on the table to cover both meals, and she stands. "Take care, Hailien. Don't lose that phone," she recommends. "Private stuff you've been putting in there, don't let it get away." And Jane is heading out with her phone being opened and numbers entered to make a call.
Hailien nods. "I won't." She says. "Bye Jane!"