Starring:
Summary: Jane returns to Pete's apartment after getting coffee and eating breakfast just in time to encounter Elle. It goes… badly.
Date It Happened: April 24th, 2007
Stop Saying You Know Me!
The next morning, after sleeping pretty much on Pete's floor with guitar in hand where it finally came over her, Jane woke up and changed into a pair of shorts, running shoes, and t-shirt with the logo of some classic rock performer. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail with the temperature outside, she finds it cooler and more comfortable this way. Up to the door she walks, carrying a takeout cup of coffee. Her expression: a mix of anger, worry, and pensiveness. Her hand touches the door, tries to turn the knob, and what the? Why doesn't it move?
It does…but about 15 seconds later. There's a sizzling sound from the doorknob area, and then the door is yanked open by one blonde, somewhere in between pissed off and upset, Elle Bishop.
Standing there, watching, when the door is pulled open, is one Doctor M. Jane Forrest. Her expression softens on sight of the electric woman, there's some of that anger and worry still present, but there's also compassion. "Morning, Elle," Jane greets quietly. She doesn't say anything else, leaving the conversational floor in the other's hands, while her own experiences with being edited are called up.
Elle was just about to walk -past- Jane, since she didn't recognize her, but now the angry look fixes on Jane. "You. You're the -other- psycho stalker. And you're working with him. This is some convoluted plan to fuck with my head?" Angry blonde is angry.
"No, Elle, it isn't," Jane replies quietly and calmly. She's been here before, being told things she no longer remembers and not wanting to believe them, needing time to process it all. "Pete's a friend. He loves you." She keeps her voice low so as to hopefully not carry through any other doors in the hallway, these things aren't for general audience, after all. "The first time we talked, I said cryptically I was a real screamer, and you said you took me for more of a moaner." She's making eye contact, there's no sign of deceit about her features and body language. "After we talked on the phone yesterday, I screamed. Had to let it out. Now a lot of glass in my apartment is broken."
The difference, of course, being that Jane Forrest is an intelligent, rational woman, and Elle Bishop is a sociopath. The blonde is still angry, and she looks back at Jane. "This -is- the first time we talked. Unless you count your little phone stunt. I've never seen you before in my life. I don't have the slightest clue who the hell you are, but this game is getting old fast." The look in her eyes pretty much confirms that -she- utterly believes what she's saying.
"I know you believe that, Elle," Jane replies. "You don't remember me. I could tell you this over and over again, but there's no real point. You're not ready to accept the truth yet. When and if you are, you've got my number. You know how to contact me. I've been where you are now, recently. Things not remembered, people telling me about them, and not being able to accept it for a while. I know what you're capable of. You could touch me on the shoulder, make my heart stop, and leave me here dead. Or worse." Saying this, she swallows a bit with memory and fear. "Why would I, knowing that, stand here and lie to you?" She stands in such a way that the blonde can walk by and leave, not blocking her path in any way.
Elle looks upset. "Stop it!" She demands. "Just…stop talking like you know me! This isn't funny!" She grabs Jane's arm, and lets current flow. It's a little bit like torture by electroshock…Elle's very good at keeping the power to OMGPAIN!! without doing any -actual- damage. But this Elle, without those tempering memories, is…well, a good deal more dangerous and sociopathic than the one who was hanging out with Jane just a couple days ago.
She doesn't resist her arm being grabbed, and when the current comes her eyes widen. Jane's features show the pain of it, just enough to make her feel like screaming but not lose it and do so. "Okay," she replies haltingly. "It's not funny at all, I wouldn't play with you like that. And I'll stop." Silence follows, she breathing harder now from the pain of electroshock.
Elle scowls. She hasn't let go yet. "I ought to teach you both a lesson. Run a few thousand volts through your brain. You'd be alive, if you call having a brainpower a few degrees above a hamster living." Her eyes are narrowed.
Standing on the edge of a cliff, this is the metaphor that applies. Elle could do that, and would. But she hasn't yet. Is that a sign of things starting to sink in? Maybe, maybe not, and the stakes are so great. Literally life and death. "I know you could. You've done it before. And here I am, not running away. Because I'm your friend, Elle. I won't abandon you. But I also won't contact you again. You'll come to me, or not. Your choice, completely."
Elle looks upset. Anger, fear, combat, terror…any of those she could handle, easily. But this serene acceptance, -THAT- is driving her to fury. She debates running enough current through the brunette that she catches on fire. In fact, the thought appeals. But she ends up having another idea. "I'll stop all your nonsense." She runs a rather sharp charge through Jane, pitched at the wattage and amperage that she knows tend to cause nerve damage. But it's a precise arc, and she lets it sear through a specific muscle's motor nerves…the brunette's tongue. "That'll stop me listening to that bullshit." To the poor lawyer, it probably feels like the lower half of her face is on fire for a moment, while the voltage crackles.
Sometimes the best you've got isn't good enough, and at least for the moment this is the case here. The eyes widen further, there's fear in them as the current hits, her breathing quickens. In this moment Jane can only cling to hope the seed is planted and comes to take hold as she expressed it should to Pete when they talked. There hasn't been the air of deceit about her through any of this, and the question, she hopes, remains of why she would expose herself to this danger on a joke or a lie. Her knees start to weaken, and the face feels on fire, she's not got much time before going down from it. Fortunately for any glass in the area, her voice has been stilled. No screaming.
Elle lets go, finally. "Go ahead!" she demands. "Go ahead and tell me now all about how you know me." She wants the other woman to understand exactly how bad her situation is. Thankfully, Elle doesn't know Peter can heal others.
Not a word is spoken, not that she really could after the electric assault, as she sinks to the floor and works to catch her breath, to recover. Jane just looks up at Elle with that same sincerity. And she's said her piece anyway. She starts to pull herself back into the apartment. The blonde will either reflect at some point and come to accept the truth, or she won't.
Elle snarls and stalks off, heading down the street. Angry, confused, and wanting to do violence.