2007-08-18: DF: When Nothing Is Everything

Starring:

DFCass_icon.gif DFElena_icon.gif

Summary:

After Cass subdues Lachlan, Elena comes by with a change of clothes. They say nothing with the understanding that it means everything.

August 18th, 2009:

When Nothing is Everythng


Phoenix Towers

With some help, Cass has managed to drag Lachlan's drugged out body to the medbay where he can sleep off the injection that she gave him. While he's out, she carefully extracts the broken off part of the needle from his arm and puts a bandaid over it to keep it from bleeding. Once she's sure that he's settled and, she pushes her hair off of her forehead and softly leaves the room. She'll be back in just a moment, but she has to go collect Abigail from the Flock member. Closing the door with a soft click, she leans her back against it to collect herself, before having to go back out and pretend like none of that just happened.

Footsteps are taking her to medbay, Elena's arms full of high quality clothing as she rounds the corner. She doesn't seem surprised to find Cass there, leaning against the door and breathing the way she is. There's an odd look on her face, a hesitant expression that contrasts to the perpetual determined spark in the dark eyes of the Saints' second-in-command. She stops there for a moment, and then she continues on to walk towards her friend. "I brought you some clothes. I think I still remember your size. Got them a little smaller though, you've lost weight." A soft, deep purple cashmere sweater seems to be the prize of the lot. It went well with her dark hair.

She glances at the shut door. "…everything alright with Lachlan?" It was hard not to hear the yelling earlier. But it was even harder not to intervene. She didn't mean to eavesdrop, she had been walking to their suite when everything had happened. "I heard yelling earlier."

Keeping their voices down in the hallway wasn't really at the forefront of Cass' mind when she went flying after Lachlan. "Y-yeah. He's fine. He…" she has no idea how to explain what just happened without going into details. Details she doesn't really want to go into again. By now she's splashed water on her face, so she doesn't look quite like the crazy trainwreck she might have when she went to chase her fiancee, but she's still tired. She gives a weak smile. "Thanks. They're really too expensive for me. I'm just going to get rust and dirt all over them."

"The idea is to give you a new identity for a while and get you out, remember?" Elena reminds gently. "We'll be handling the dirty parts." She pauses. "…..that sounded so wrong but you know what I mean." She offers the bundle to Cass. "Besides, they're comfy and if you're going to be traveling, you ought to be, yeah?" She searches her face, and she glances off to the side. She has her suspicions, save from what she heard earlier. And her face. The morning when she woke up after her rescue. "You sure…you don't wanna talk about anything, Cass?" she asks, meeting the older woman's eyes finally. She can't…stop herself from pressing anymore. She was worried. And this was Cass. She could sense something was wrong and she can't let go of it. They've worked together, laughed together, they brainstormed over science and they had almost the same friends. It was difficult to sit there and feel it, but ignore it. She can't anymore.

"I've got a couple of days - maybe even weeks - before we're all ready to move." There's so many things that they have to do to prepare. Getting someone to take over the clinics, finding someone to replace her. Better out of the country than in captivity where she could give up safehouses and codes, but it's still not ideal for her to leave. "These are just going to get rubble all over them." But, she takes the bundle, propelling herself forward from the doorway. She needs to keep walking and she needs to head back to her room where Abigail should be being watched. "How can I say no to comfy clothes? Always wished I could afford Prada." The question, though, that's something she's been waiting for Elena to ask. Lachlan has his suspicions, and she's been friends with Elena forever. "No, really, I'm fine. Sorry. Really, I am. Just worried." She's trying to go for flippant, to try and dissuade her.

She watches the older woman with her eyes, seeing her do the flippant act but clearly not buying it. She also senses that she brings up the clothes first to distract her from the real reason why she wanted to talk to her today. "You're worried," Elena says quietly. "That we'd all find out about something." She shakes her head and looks away. "Cass, you know me. It's not like me to pry but…if something….bad…happened to you while you were there…." And she knows what she's suspecting, it'd be hard for any woman to talk about. The shame factor was too high. Especially for a strong, proud woman like Cass. Finally, she looks at her friend again, right in the eyes, but she doesn't say anything else….not for a bit. Finally.. "Did he…?"

Maybe Elena doesn't buy it, but that doesn't mean Cass is going to let it slip any time soon. It's bad enough that Lachlan may have guessed what happened while she was in captivity, but everyone else? That's that last thing she wants. She never wants to think about what happened ever again and she /certainly/ doesn't want her friends to know about it. "Stop asking me if anything happened to me. Nothing happened. It was a cake walk, it was the Club Med of imprisonments. Just, stop it." It's not like Cass to snap at her friends like this, to hide things from them. But, this is an extenuating circumstance. "You know me, too. So you know when I say nothing happened, nothing happened."

She lets her. Elena doesn't get defensive. She just watches Cass quietly for a while when she keeps on going. But the look on her face is rather clear that she doesn't believe her. Inside, somewhere, she's ready to crumple up at the weight of horror, pure horror, that's pressing on her - it felt like it came from the ceiling, slowly squishing her into the ground. The signs were there, and the way Cass was reacting was only bringing up those textbook profiles she had read, medical reports she's taken down. She lived in New York. She volunteered at Mount Sinai most of her teenaged life. She was a teenager who went to a prep school that was proud of its jocks. She knows. And the realization makes her sick to her stomach. She glances at the door. No force on Earth is going to stop Lachlan if he finds out. If he already doesn't know. The yelling earlier…

It doesn't take a genius to tell that Elena doesn't believe her. Unsure of what to do in this situation, Cass pauses when she notices Elena looking over at the door where Lachlan is. "/Nothing happened/." She repeats firmly, meaningfully. Lachlan can /never/ know. Never come to realize what his suspicions actually mean. Maybe this is the part where she should break down into tears again and confess just how horrible everything has been for her, how much she hurts inside. How everything seems to be a trial, however, that's not a luxury she can afford. She has a daughter to think about, a fiancee she has to keep from shaking the life out of a President who /deserves/ what he gets, not to mention packing up everything she knows to leave a country she's lived in her entire life. She just drugged the love of her life to keep him from ruining whatever future they could make for themselves away from here. Lying is the lesser of two evils. "Do you understand?"

Still nothing. Elena's still looking at the door - a distraction really, from the sinking feeling of disgust taking over her stomach. She was going to be sick, and she didn't have the heart to call up her ability to prevent it. It's like she didn't hear Cass, the ice fingers crawling up her spine slowly as a momentary darkness takes over her features. Nothing happened. Right. And she was going to run off and join the circus - something which didn't seem like a bad idea right now, truth be told. But she's not going anywhere. Instead, she lifts her arms, and hands Cass the clothes she brought her, for her to pack on her trip. She understands. Whenever the clothes are taken, her hands slide in her pockets. "He's not going to just…" let this go. She might not know Lachlan as well as Cass. But she knows him enough to know that Stubborn Deatley is Stubborn. "Nothing happened," she replies, closing her eyes. "I'll hold onto that. If anyone asks, that's all I know. But don't ask me to believe it."

"He has to." Or Cass will keep drugging him until he sees sense. "We're leaving and he won't be anywhere near here." Meaning Lachlan won't get a chance to kill Nathan. Not to mention the fact that she will never tell him. She'll lie, she'll try and get him to forget, to pretend like this never happened. Maybe that will work. "He can't know where you're keeping Nathan." That's for sure. If he has his suspicions, he'll continue the rampage he started. Taking the clothes from Elena, she tucks them under her arm. "I don't need you to believe it." She just needs her to never speak of her suspicions to anyone else and never /talk/ about this again.

"We'll try to keep it from him - like I told you before, Jack's only allowed a few people to know where he actually is so far. I don't know how he'll react if Lachlan asks him personally. only person who'd be able to anticipate that is Trina. If he tries to talk to Jack about it, you'll have to rein him in because he won't listen to any of us," Elena says, quelling the tide of disgust and horror into something more manageable. Discussing logistics almost always worked, and as promised she moves on. It doesn't keep the grief out, and she hopes Cass knows better than to think she'll be able to sweep this under the rug….not from Lachlan, but herself and reacting instinctively when something triggers the memory.

"He won't even listen to me about it any more." Not after he started to put a few pieces of things together. "I don't know if I can stop him if he figures out where he is. I can't keep pumping him with narcotics and tranquilizers the moment he wakes up until we leave." Well, she /could/ and she /will/ if that's what it comes down to, but she has other responsibilities as well. "He's not going to listen to anyone." She sighs and looks down the hallway. Maybe Elena won't be able to forget about it, won't sweep it under the rug, and that's fine. Just as long as she doesn't have to talk about it. Confess anything. "I'll figure something out."

She watches Cass as she looks down the hall. She was right, of course, reining in Lachlan's going to be a problem. Elena shakes her head. "None of us is going to say anything, but I'm not discounting ways to get around it. We're just people, after all," she tells Cass honestly. "Unless you want us to try and distract him with other stuff. Have him run with us for a while, take the edge off." They did have a rescue op the following day to pull off. But she knows that isn't wise. He could still be unstable. "There's also the option of locking him up until you both have to go, but he'll only just get really pissed off about it. Stick him in a room like what we're doing to Benji. But we'll do it if you think it's the best way to go."

"No." None of those are proper ways to deal with Lachlan. Especially the locking him up. Those will just make him madder. "Don't." Putting a hand on her forehead, she rubs it back and forth as if she's starting to get a headache. Maybe she is. That would just make this morning perfect. "Just…I don't know. Let him talk to him and bring back up. Don't let him talk to him and bring back up. Lachlan is Lachlan. He thinks he can save me or make this better by hurting someone else." If only that were the case. She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. Then, she's on another topic. "He'll be out for at least another hour. Woozy for a little while after that. I need to go check on Abby. I'll be back." She's planning on sitting with him while he's out.

"Okay…well." God. What a mess. Elena rakes her hands through her hair and exhales audibly. "I guess we've got a couple of hours respite before he wakes back up." She looks over at her friend yet again. "I have a couple of scientists to deliver to the zoo. Eric'll come with me, we'll probably stop by our paper boy." As in, someone they know who can arrange false identities. "See if your documents are in order, before heading back here." So she could go on a joyride to see a certain someone in a cage….and drag confirmation out of him. She's afraid of what she could find out, afraid she won't be able to control herself. But she has to. She can't interfere with her father's work. There has to be some way to do this and help him but at the same time figure out….if he's done this to others.

Like Desiree.
Or Heidi.

Heidi.

If Ramon's diagnosis was true and Nathan was still in there….

"Let me know if you need anything," she says, resting a gentle hand on Cass's shoulder and giving her a squeeze. "You know how to shoot a gun when you need to, yeah? I'll pack a black box for you guys too." Because she's not letting them go on without some semblance of protection.

The whole thing is sort of a mess. More than sort of. "Okay." Allowing Elena to run through the list of things that she needs to to, Cass just nods absently. Her mind is already on other things. Things that need to be done and finished. To figure out. "Like I said, no hurry. We've still got things to do with the Alliance." The hand on her shoulder doesn't spook her this time. It's just a hand. Just her trying to feel better by comforting Cass. "When I need to. I'm sure Lachlan'll have it covered." If there is one thing that Lachlan is very very good at, it is protecting them. There's no thanks this time, because there's much too much that just went undiscussed between them. Too much on her mind. "I'll see you when we get back." Because she doubts that Lachlan will be awake and ready to go by then. "Be careful."

She allows herself a devilish grin, Elena lifting her brows at Cass. "Careful? Me?" She lets go of her shoulder and turns to head down the hall. "I'm always careful." LIES. "I'll see you soon." She is aware, there had been too much undiscussed. But time is something they didn't have much of, and the little spaces in between where sometimes the only things they could seize to make the most of it. With her back turned, she closes her eyes. There was too much to do. She can put what has to be done first, before what she wants to do. Everyone else was doing it, and by virtue of her position, it would be an injustice not to do the same.

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