2007-03-12: This Can Only End in Tears

Starring:

Jack_icon.gif Elena_icon.gif Lachlan_icon.gif Cass_icon.gif

Summary: Jack calls a meeting between himself, Elena, and Lachlan to discuss the paintings and Sydney's betrayal. In the middle of it, Cass shows up. Things do not go well. Shouting and accusations follow and it all ends with Jack being alone.

Date It Happened: March 12, 2007

This Can Only End in Tears


The Den of Iniquity, Brooklyn

Today has not been a stellar day for Jack. He's sore, angry, and both physically and mentally exhasted. Sick and weary, he's finally retreated to his pub to wind down and have a drink. The man might be on the run, but there's no way in Hell he's not coming back to his bar at the end of the night. He's dressed the cut above his temple himself, crooked stitches attesting to his haste. Too many things to do.

After more hours poking his nose around than he cares to think of, Jack finally has a few tidbits of information to offer. Rather than mark the agreed-upon helix in Central Park and call a formal meeting, he instead left vaugely-worded paper messages for both Elena and Lachlan, requesting their presence as immediately as possible.

Taptaptaptap.

What IS it with Elena and windows? But there's really only one person who would tap on Jack's window after he leaves a message for her. So whenever Jack slides the window up, she crawls in, and slides the window closed after she's dropped onto the floor. "I thought we all agreed we were lying low?" she wonders, giving Jack a look as she sets her backpack and her books onto the nearest space she's able. She looks curious - and a touch worried. Usually whenever Jack calls, it was for something important, and not just because he likes hanging out with her. Granted Jack's been relegated to Big Brother status since before the Great Fail of 2007….which occured last night.

She's dressed in her usual, a black, thick coat with frayed cuffs, unzipped at the front to reveal an unzipped hoodie, and yet another one of her shirts. Today, it's a bright bright crimson, with the infamous Napster logo in front….but with an eyepatch. The words at the bottom say 'Music Pirate.'

Seated behind his desk, Jack looks at the books arrayed atop it. Computers. Chemistry. Social skills. It seems an unlikely series of tomes that he shoves to the floor in frustration. Then he stands and slides away the glass partion that seperates him from Elena. "This /is/ lying low. Ownership of this bar can be traced to four different people, none of which are named Jack. Now sit down." Overnight, Jack seems to have aged a decade. The worry lines that once were only brief visitors now have a decided look of permanence. His shoulders are hunched and the stubble he can never seem to get rid of has grown to a brief, thin beard. Heavy bags pouch under his bloodshot eyes.

Jack closes the window and absently waves a hand. One of the bottles of bourbon on the bar disappears, then rematerializes in his grip. After plucking the cork out with his teeth, he drinks right from the jug for the first time in his life.

"….." She frowns openly at Jack as he snaps at her to sit down. Just what the hell was going on? She'd call him on it, but he looks upset. So Elena takes a seat, the closest she could find in her area, and crosses her arms over her chest. "If you want to keep your head clear you should take it easy with that stuff. Alcohol makes you feel better but it's not exactly conducive to thinking. It's a depressant." She doesn't think Jack will listen to her, but she says it regardless. "What's going on? You look like you haven't slept….no word yet from the others?" She's still holding out some hope that some of them escaped. Then again she was always an optimist.

Today hasn't been a stellar day for Lachlan either. Cass wasn't in the apartment when he woke up. Cass' /phone/ was, but Cass was not. Nobody he's been able to get a hold of (which, considering, is not many) has been able to give him any information about where she is or what she's doing, and he's only left with two conclusions: she snuck out to meet with that Suresh guy without him, or she's been kidnapped. It's hard to tell, really; he had a bit to drink last night and wasn't exactly the lightest of sleepers. She could have been abducted by aliens and may be sitting on the mothership writing poetry about it, for all he knows. He's at a loss here. That's why it's taken him a bit of time to respond to Jack's message. He's not exactly sober either, but he's at least walking upright and in a straight line. A little scotch never hurt anyone and there wasn't enough left in the bottle to really inebriate him. The Scotsman slips into the Den and makes straight for the office after moving around the bar in search of the door. Once he thinks he's found it, he gives a knock. It's not quiet. Lachlan is dressed in the same clothes he's worn for the past few days: the bloodstained ones from the break-in.

Ptooh. Jack is guzzling before the spat-out cork hits the ground. However, Elena's words /are/ wise. Still, he's not ready to stop yet. "Just tryin' to take the edge off, Scrappy. Let's wait for Lachlan to get here." Then the Scot Himself knocks, clearly visible through the one-way mirror. Jack sets the bottle down and moves to let him in. He might look like shit, but at least he's got a nice suit on. Irish class, ftw. "Good. You're here. There are things you both need to hear."

"….." Elena gives Jack a look. Alright. She's listening. She crosses her legs on the side of the poker table she is sitting at. Scratching the back of her neck, she gives Lach a small wave from where she is. She also sees his inebriation, and she groans. "Am I the only one -sober- in this room?" she jests. But this is said good-naturedly, and she links her fingers around a single knee. Though it looks like no one else is coming. That was understandable, Jack doesn't really know Drake and Eric - they had only been allowed to tag along because Drake's powers were extremely useful, and Eric could block out the sun if he had the range. But considering they were the only two…?

"'M as bloody sober 's 'm gonna get," Lachlan growls roughly, lacking a sense of humor now that he's distraught and a bit tipsy. He shoulders into the office with a grumbled something about Cass missing and then plops down in the nearest available seating space. It's graceless and sloppy — two words that describe him so beautifully.
Jack's concerns seem to mirror Elena's. First they were many, now they are few. Unfortunately, that doesn't matter. There's still work to be done. Striding back over to his desk, Jack slumps into his chair. "If Cass is missing, things are worse than I'd thought. I knew I shouldn't have let her meet Suresh on her own." Like Hiro before him, Jack is growing extremely protective of his people. By his attitude, it's clear that any blame for this lies with himself, at least in his eyes. "Sydney, the.." he gropes for the proper terminology. "She was the den mother at our last hideout, you could say. She's turned on us. The Company has the Mendez paintings she'd been holding for us. And they have Eliana, as well." He lets the words hang in the air. He'd been reluctant to speak them, as if voicing it aloud would make it so, and hiding the fact could somehow make it go away. The omission of the fact that Jack has a Mendez of his own hidden away is a deliberate one. Determinedly, he forces the pain and anxiety from his face.

There is a pause. "…..who's Sydney?" Elena asks. She's met Eliana, though she frowns when Jack mentions his Girl Friday has been taken by the Company. No wonder Jack looked upset. If they had taken her Papa and held him indefinitely, she would be looking the same. But at the very end of Jack's spiel, her eyes widen. "…..they WHAT?" she blurts out. "You mean this Sydney person was holding the paintings?" She pauses. "Tell me that someone -at least- took pictures of the things," she says slowly. Because if she knew the paintings could predict the future and people were after them? That would've been the first things she would've done. After flipping out, of course. But she's looking at Jack. "….so now what? If we don't have duplicates….how the hell are we supposed to stop this major freaking disaster that's going to kill us all without them?"

… wait, wait, wait. /What/? The only thing in that entire speech that Lachlan understood was "And they have Eliana, as well." He blinks, then squints in confusion between Elena and Jack, frowning deeply. "The bloody fuck're ye goin' on 'bout?" he mutters, clearly baffled-in-a-not-happy-way. All this doesn't matter to him at all, really. Cass is missing. That's his priority.

"Calm down, LachNess. Here, have a drink." It's not scotch, but Jack slides a mostly full bottle of good bourbon over to his friend. "I have digital copies of all the paintings." Still no mention of his original. "We've got to take this one step at a time. First step is to find our friends. That includes Cass." He pats the other man on the shoulder. "Then we'll attend to the paintings. I know more about them than you, and I don't even know where to start. We need Hiro's help."

"Oh no, Jack. No. We're NOT going back there," Elena says, standing up from her chair and already looking apprehensive at the thought of going back. "At least not without a concrete plan and not while their neutralizer is in the facility. Otherwise if we attempt another rescue, we're boned big time." She groans and slumps back on the chair. "I wish we knew someone who could turn invisible, or someone who could…I don't know. Break in like a ninja. Yes, that's what we need. A ninja." You think she's kidding but she's totally serious! But when Jack says that he has digital copies of the paintings, she relaxes. Part of her wants to see them, part of her wants to see a glimpse of this horrific future to drive things home to her. But she doesn't push her boundaries. "Lachlan…I don't mean to sound dismissive but could it just be possible that she left her phone in her pad?" she says, looking at the Scotsman.

Grumblegrumble … hrr? Ooh, a bottle. Lachlan takes it grudgingly and peers into it to ascertain just how much alcoholic wonderlove there is before he takes a swig. It's not scotch, but he'll take just about anything with a high alcoholic content right now. "She left 'er bloody phone in 'er 'partment," he snips at Elena, "but /she's no' there/, an' she was there when I went ta sleep last nigh'. She snuck out." He's going to be /so mad/ when she gets back. /If/ she gets back. More grumbling follows, but he's listening. Really.

"You're right, Scrappy. We're not going to make the same mistake twice, as much as I might like to." Weary, Jack leans back and sighs. Rather than address the potential non-issue of Cass's location, he skirts around it. "I've a few ideas cookin', but nothin' too impressive. There are more queer folk for me to look up before I commit to anything." That's right. Nathan Petrelli, their financial backer and brother of Peter, who they'd originally gone to rescue. The mysterious Adam, who Jack and Eliana met in Central Park. He shakes his head, bringing himself back. "At this point, we can't afford to go in guns blazing. We're too few for that, now."

"We never should have gone guns blazing in the first place. I thought someone had a plan!" Elena says, throwing her hands up in exasperation. But she sighs and she looks at Jack. "Save Hiro, save the world, huh?" she remarks. "Even if we did get a bunch of people together how are we going to pull this off? We need to be selective with our skill sets this time. That and we -seriously- need the plans of that building if we're going to bust someone out. Haven't you all seen Prison Break?" Come to think of it, Eric looks a -lot- like the lead character in that series… >.> "Anyway, just who are these queer folk?"

"Hiro's the Chink bit, righ'? Li'l guy tha' bounces 'round?" Just to be clear. Lachlan's been fed so much information the past few days, it's a wonder he hasn't fallen into an overload coma. Right now, he looks to be in some mental pain. "An' how d'ye know ye can trust any o' these queer folk? 'Member how it was all cocked up last time."

"Who they are isn't important. And I definately don't trust them." The glance Jack shoots in Elena's direction is a little on the guilty side. Lachlan, on the other hand, can still be protected by his ignorance. As much as he wants to trust these people, being too free with secrets is what got Hiro's Heroes into trouble in the first place.

It BETTER be guilty. Elena has been more than forthcoming when it came to -her- information. If they were going to work together, the important stuff should be coming out and she doesn't even know who these people were. They could be pirates, for all she knows! She glowers at Jack from where she is, and then she rakes a hand through her hair. "So what's the plan? Talk to them and then….what?"

"Ffffff," hisses Lachlan, rolling his eyes and tilting back in his chair. It is a "ffffff" of contempt. Hell, if he ran his drug business anything like this, he'd have been thrown in jail a /lot/ more times than he has been already. He glances around Jack's office and falls silent a moment. "Ye ever try, yanno, /bargainin'/ with these people?" Just throwing it out there.

Jack crosses the room and loops a friendly, fatherly arm around Elena's shoulders. "Sorry, Scrappy. I'm fine with /me/ being in danger, but I've still gotta look out for you." After giving the girl a gentle squeeze, he releases her and smiles ruefully. "If things so south, I don't want you rushing after me. Give me a day or two and I'll have more answers for you. As for a bargain? That's not /entirely/ out of the question." There's only one thing to trade, though. The final Mendez, and that isn't going to be let go lightly.

Into the main room of the Den of Iniquity, Cass pushes her way in. She still doesn't have her phone on her and she's in the need to talk to Jack and whoever else she can find. Still angry at her meeting with Mohinder, she curses when she doesn't see Jack behind the bar. Great. Now what? She walks up to the bar and nods to the tender there. "Hey, have you seen Jack?" The man gives Cass a skeptical look over and then jerks his thumb toward the back room. Nodding her thanks, she heads in that direction, knocking on the door to be let in. She's not quite sure of the procedure in a case like this.

Much as when Lachlan arrived, the wall of one-way mirrors facing the street clearly display Cass's approach. Wordlessly, he lets her in and then makes room for Lachlan's inevitable, drunken tackle-hug-scold.

But there is no drunken tackle-hug-scold. It's more a drunken stare-blink-stand-scowl. There was the /thought/ of a tackle-hug-scold in there, hence the standing. Lachlan hops onto his feet the moment he spots Cass on the other side of the door, but then he stands his ground and frowns at her. "Where the bloody /fuck/ ye been?" he demands roughly. "Ye have any idea how bloody /worried/ 've been?" Hi, Cass.

Though it has been a bit since she snuck out of the apartment, Cass wasn't totally sure that Lachlan would be this angry at her. She wasn't even sure he'd notice. She could just be off at the store! Or with the way he's looking at her, she guesses he might have tried that. She's not sure she wants to tell the truth right now. "I did some investigating," she replies, though there's really only one part of investigating she was doing. "You really didn't have to worry." The look on her face is a mixture of defensiveness and anger.

For his part, Jack doesn't look particularly pleased at Cass's appearance. Not displeased either, but this /was/ intended as a private party. Crossing his arms over his chest, he watches she and Lachlan face off. Also, 'investigating?' Sure. Jack has used that one a number of times before, most recently with Eliana. When he says it, it's French for 'I'm doing something dangerous, don't bother me about it.'

Lachlan doesn't speak French, but he's no fool either. He seems quite flabbergasted when Cass tells him he didn't have to worry, and he simply gawks at her a moment before spluttering, "Dinna have ta— ! B'cause yer sneakin' out when 'm sleepin' an' no' tellin' me where yer goin' 'r anythin' an' leavin' yer bloody phone an' I canna find a bloody /soul/ tha' knows where ye've gone when there's all this /shit/ goin' down an' people're missin' an' bloody Eliana's gone — tha's no' a reason fer me ta worry?! Fuck's sake, Cass, ye wanna /tell/ me when I should start worryin'?" All this is accompanied by a bit of flailing, which puts the bourbon in his bottle at risk of spillage, but he manages not to make a mess. And then it hits him: investigating? He /peers/ at Cass. "Ye went ta see tha' Suresh guy, di'n ye?" This? This is not good.

"….wait. Suresh? Dr. Mohinder Suresh?" Elena says, her eyes looking to Cass as she stares at her, momentarily cut off from glowering at Jack despite his squeeze. "…..why did you go to Dr. Suresh? He's a Company man! He joined up because they gave him the resources to cure his ward, this sweet little girl named Molly." There it goes again, font of information. And if she gets a gape, she shrugs. "I confronted him," she remarks grimly. "He was spotted with Jane and two people who I knew were operatives of the Company. I know the names of four. Why did you go to him? You didn't tell him anything did you?"

Suddenly everyone is focused on Cass and they don't look happy. Wow. What did she just walk into? She thought she was doing good things. But now it doesn't look like she is. She already had a huge blow out fight with Mohinder, she doesn't want it to happen again with the people she did this to help. "I didn't /tell you/ because I didn't want you to worry and because I wanted to find out what the hell happened. Forgive me if I thought taking someone they're interested in catching and cutting up was a /bad idea/." Glaring at Lachlan her fists clench together in frustration again. "I /know/ he's part of the Company. That's why I went to talk to him." So it looks like that would be a yes to Lachlan's question. "I figured he'd have some information on who they might have there, but he didn't. I don't even know if he's our snitch. I know he's not trustworthy, but I don't know if he'd give us up. I didn't tell him anything he didn't already know."

Jack sighs. Once again, he's a step behind. Not just Cass, but Elena as well. He does his best to conceal his irritation. He'd been hoping to get to Suresh first. Still, knowing he takes care of a child is something. Jack grimly files that bit of information away. "I love your enthusiasm, Cass. Truly, I do. Just… try and keep us the loop, ok? The Company has Eliana. People are betraying us right and left. We have to be careful. I think it's best that if we want to do something stupid, we do it together so we can watch each other's backs." Except for Jack, of course. He's exempt from all stupidity rules.

"God. You know who we should find next? One of us who's a walking lie detector," Elena grumbles. "Gather all of us up in a gigantic room and have him or her go to town. If people can teleport and see the future, then I'm sure someone out there knows who's lying." She sighs. "Anyway, I swear on Mama's grave that it wasn't me. I know what I know about the Company, but I don't even know half the people who went with us that night, let alone what actually happened. The only person I recognized was former Congressman Petrelli, and that's because I read the papers. But that still doesn't….you know. Help us decide what to do now. Thanks Cass, for the initiative. Truth be told I can't judge. I did the same thing."

And Jane.

Somewhere inside, there is a miniature Lachlan that is flailing horribly at this entire affair. /Damnable/ woman and her … her /not being protected/-ness. The Scotsman looks as though he's about to explode or pop something internally important. He throws his arms up into the air and brings them back down to his sides again with an audible 'slap!'. Some bourbon is lost to the floor. "Ye dinna want me ta worry, ye should o' taken me an' a bloody dog along!" he bellows. "He's Company; he coulda snagged ye an' we'd no' have a /Goddamn clue/ where ye were!" He's clearly not taking this as well as the other two. Then again, he's biased. And then Elena pipes up with /her/ input, and Lachlan just gets more and more flabbergasted. "Bloody hell, yer all a buncha— !" But he can't think of a word, so he trails off with a wave of his hand and slumps back into his seat, glowering. Not a happy Scotsman.

Jack grimaces. Ostensibly, the job of keeping this little gathering organized is his. "Ok. That's enough." Though his voice is soft, it carries a quietly commanding note. "Bickering will get us nowhere. Cass did what she did. So did Elena. All of the smart people think that it was stupid. Let's move on." Yes, humorously enough, the 'smart people' are Jack and Lachlan.

"Yeah, well, if I woulda told you, you would have insisted on coming along!" Cass yells back at Lachlan. Hello spat. "They're not interested in /me/, Lachlan. They're interested in /you/." To Jack, she glowers just as much. She was just trying to help and now it's all blowing up in her face. "So I'm being stupid now? Here. This is the loop. Mohinder works for the Company, but he doesn't have high clearance. He doesn't know where Hiro is and he didn't even know that the break in happened. I don't know if he's the one who betrayed you guys. In fact, I'm not convinced he was." When Lachlan slumps in his chair and everyone is fighting, she huffs. "I didn't give anyone up. I wasn't even at the meeting and I wasn't at the break in. I don't know most of the people involved." And then Jack makes his little statement. "Fine. You know what, you're the smart ones. Go beat Mohinder up and see if he tells you any more because that's the smart idea. I came here to tell you what I found out and try to get Hiro and Eliana out of there without losing anyone else."

She sighs and she stands up. She wanders over to the refrigerator Jack has in the back room, pulling the door open and looking at the beverages within. She finds, thankfully, a can of soda. Elena takes one for herself, and one for Cass, and she walks over to offer it to the other woman. "I think we might have a better idea if Cass tells us what she knows. We can decide then. We're running on an egregious lack of information here, and it's the one thing we need desperately if we're going to try and get Hiro and Jack's Girl Friday out. And Jane."

There's nothing from the Scottish side of the room. Lachlan has fallen into sullen silence and occupies his time with boring holes into the baseboard at the other side of the room and sending ranty angry signals to any and all dogs within 100 yards. Barking outside can probably be heard.

"Allow me to rephrase my previous statement. If you can't shut up, get the fuck out of my bar." Jack lifts one hand to point at the door, dispelling any illusions that he might be joking. His blue eyes are hard and serious. "We've no time to fight amongst ourselves. I say again, what's done is done. Now we move on to bigger and better things. If Mohinder doesn't know anything, I'll cross him off my List. Your call, Cass."

Cass crosses her arms and glares at Jack. "Fine. You want me to get the fuck out of your bar, I'll get out. I came in here to tell you guys what I found out and suddenly I had everyone jumping down my throat. I didn't come here for a fight." She looks over at Elena and then to Lachlan. She's not really angry at /them/ per se right now. Especially not at Elena, but she shakes her head at the offer of a drink. Soda or otherwise. "Mohinder's not going to tell you anything else. That I'm sure of. But do what you want. I'm still going to look for them, but I'm not staying here to be belittled and swore at."

"Don't look at me, I was just asking questions. I'm not mad, I was alarmed. And I already told the rest of you that I did the same thing Cass did a week ago," Elena says, glancing at Jack when he says what he does. "Look….why don't we all just sit down and ….I don't know. Play poker or something, give the brains and the tempers to relax a little bit. Or sitting down is good too. Just….we really have to remember that when it comes to this, we're all we've got. If we split up now, we're fucked."

Elena pauses. "…..oh shit, I said the F word."

More brooding from Lachlan. When Cass threatens to leave, he manages to glance up at her and he tenses as though about to get up, but then he simply slumps a little further into his chair and glares at /anywhere/ that is not Cass. More barking from outside.

A rare, honest smile spreads across Jack's face. "Once again, Scrappy's right. We've got to stick together." Except the part where Jack tries to do all the dangerous stuff himself so no one else will get hurt. "Like I said, I have some leads to follow up. Things are grim, but it's not over yet. Before anyone does anything rash, give me another day to root around. You have my word that I'll get in touch with you. Just kick back for twenty-four hours, that's all I ask."

Cass gives Elena a weak smile for her antics. "I'm crap at poker." Oh, she's still angry and glowering, but she can't help but be a bit softer toward Elena. "So you can do something rash? You're being pretty hypocritical, there, Jack," she points out. She doesn't understand why /she/ gets yelled at for following leads and when he does it it's a 'good idea'. While she looks over at Lachlan, she sees he's trying to not look in her direction and she sighs before turning away.

"Well we can do the sitting down part, right?" Elena says with a sigh, cracking open her soda and taking a gulp. "I'm all out of good ideas here, guys," she says softly, dropping onto another chair. "It's the Desperation Hour." She also glowers at Jack. She knows he's hiding things still. She knows it's also to protect her, but come on! She sighs and rakes a hand through her hair. "Though I suppose in every good movie, there's this scene where the group has a spat. If it's happening now, I guess we're on the right track."

Well, Lachlan's already sitting. And shutting up. He's doing these things /really really really/ well, too. Now if only the others could follow his example.

"I was… non-specific as to what my plans are," Jack states, for the record. "They could be dangerous," he admits. "But I don't see any reason for more than one person to take the risk. So relax. Go home and argue with Lachlan. Have some dirty, nagry Scotsman sex. You'll feel better, and I'll be able to do my job uninterrupted." Jack reaches out to ruffle Elena's hair affectionately. "And you don't worry about me, either. Everything will be fine. Trust in the Jack. The Jack is good."

"Yeah, well, so was I and for some reason I was stupid for trying to protect someone I really care about, but you're not." Cass looks at the seats and at Elena, at Lachlan and then looks back at Jack. "There's no need to be patronizing, Jack. You want to go get yourself in trouble, be the hero, do what you need to do. But then don't think you can tell me what I should do. I don't want to get in your way, after all. Or interrupt you. After all, you know so much more than I do." She sighs and then looks right at Elena. "I'm sorry, Elena. I want to work together and I want to help everyone, but I'm not going to do it at the expense of self respect. I don't have a plan, but I am sick of secrecy and I'm sick of people telling me trust in them when they obviously don't trust us." She looks at Jack. "So you do what you need to do. I'll still help out and I'll tell you all everything I find out, but I won't be spoken to like I'm five."

She pauses, and then she glances at Jack. "Chica's got a point," Elena remarks. "I'm sick of it too. And I know I'm a kid, but come on Jack, I found out plenty on my own. I probably know more about the Company than you and Lach put together, and you're both underworld and in touch with really shady stuff. I think I've proven my worth despite being a kid and my investment in this is as personal as it is altruistic. These people tagged my best friend, threatened my father, wiped me, and they let the guy who killed my mother get away." There, it's out. "I have more cause than anyone to be loyal to these shenanigans."

Going home and having it out with Cass is appealing, but Lachlan doesn't mention this. Cass' mention of someone she really cares about seems to fall on deaf ears, too, because the Scotsman really is as thick as he looks sometimes. However, he's made progress! Now he's taken to looking between all the others in the room (even Cass, whoa), and the dogs barking outside have calmed a bit. His scowl is not as pronounced as it was.

Here it comes… Wait for it… POP! Jack finally blows his lid. This is bound to be messy. "Ok, fine!" he shouts. "Do whatever the FUCK you want to do, all of you. God forbid you let someone who might be able to protect you actually do the job. Sneak around, put yourselves in needless danger, and don't bother telling anyone else what senselessly stupid antics you're vaulting into." With a clear show of effort, Jack calms himself. Breathe. Breathe. Nope, sorry. Can't stop the volcano. "ALL I WANTED WAS ONE GODDAMN DAY!"

"Fine. Take a day. Take as many days as you want. I'm not stopping you." Having gotten most of her anger out before this whole explosion, Cass manages to take this with a /mostly/ calm demeanor, though she's visibly shaking a bit. "/None/ of us need protecting. We need to be /worked/ with." Tossing her hands up in the hair, she points at Jack for a moment, trying to contain herself. Lowering her pointing finger, she takes a deep breath and manages for the most part. Her words are clipped, but she's not yelling. "Here. This is me not sneaking around. Ready? Wait for it. I'm going to Hartsdale to talk to my father tomorrow. He's a doctor and I'm almost positive he works for the Company. I found out five days ago. That's how I knew Mohinder was Company, too. If I don't come back, then you know where I went. Good luck with whatever it is you wanted to do. That is all my cards. Everything I have is down on the table now. I'll call you when I get back in town. If any of you want to talk to me when I get back, pick up. If you don't, don't. That's all I've got." Sighing, she looks at Lachlan, pointedly, unsure if he even wants to talk to her any more and then turns around to leave.

Jack's explosion causes Lachlan to bristle internally. That's /no way/ to talk to /any/ of the women present (but like the Irishman, Lachlan is totally exempt from this rule by virtue of himself). He's soon up on his feet and moving toward Jack with a cold, hard frown. "Oy," he growls lowly, "ye stop yer bellowin' 'r I'll put ye through tha' bloody door, ye get me?" Lachlan? Being /rational/? Say it ain't so! When Cass moves to leave, he hesitates a moment, glancing between Elena and Jack before he decisively starts to follow. His excuse? "Lemme walk ye home." It's spoken in a mumble that probably only she will hear, but hey, it's something.

Lovely righteous indignation, Cass. Positively top-notch. Still, Jack masters himself and watches her walk out without a retort, which must've been hard. More than anything he's done today, even seeking out Syndey, he regrets putting this meeting together. Far better to keep his own council if a bunch of irrational yowling is the alternative. Breathe. Breathe. That's it. When Lachlan stands to confront him, he seems more than happy to respond in kind. Then he shakes his head and makes vaguely dismissive gestures toward the door. Far better that this disorganized group shove off now.

Cass certainly is righteously indignant. She doesn't like being told what to do and she doesn't like to be talked down to. Just as disappointed in this whole thing, she pauses when Lachlan appears at her elbow. She's a bit surprised, but grateful for it. "Okay," she says just as softly. No one's going to stop her, so off she goes.

What the hell was so irrational about sharing information, was what Elena wanted to know. If they just told her who the people she was working with were, she would've actually brought up the fact that Mohinder was Company, which she found out before Jack even brought her to meet Hiro. If they just shared and did their parts, maybe the disaster in the facility wouldn't have happened to begin with. She remains seated, her arms crossing over her chest. More than anything, she was disappointed. "You know you can't just expect people to tell you their stuff and just be cool with it when you don't tell them yours, Irish," she points out when Lach and Cass leave. "Kind of makes us feel like tools, you know? To be used and then put aside so you can do whatever."

And right behind Cass is Lachlan — or, well, /almost/. He does pause in the door to glance back at Jack and Elena as though about to say something, thinks better of it, and heads out with a shake of his head. Right now, the cohesion of the Group isn't his priority; his cohesion with Cass is.

Steeling himself, Jack turns to look Elena in the eye levelly. "I didn't ask for anyone to tell me anything. I called you and Lachness here as a courtesy, to let you know we were in more danger than I originally thought. Now I've said my piece, and you've all said more than enough. Go, and don't come back here. It's not safe."

As a courtesy? A COURTESY? That stung, and especially to one so young. She was good enough to tag along and get SHOT AT, but not good enough to talk to? Elena snatches her backpack and slings it on her shoulder. She'll use the front door, but she doesn't say a word in response. Oh she's mad, one could see it in her eyes if they looked close enough. She doesn't even look back.

Oh yes. It's the Silent Treatment.

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