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Three and a half hours isn't really all that long. The car was more or less silent, save for the sound of Allison's quiet breathing as she slept. It was always amazing to John how people could be comfortable enough to sleep around others. He knew his own sleeping patterns weren't normal, but still.
The desire to check on Allison constantly was pretty strong. John was glad that driving offered it's own sort of distraction.
Since they didn't need gas, John drove straight through. Got off of Highway 5 in Tracy, changing to 580 and continuing West. He didn't wake Allison until they were approaching the Bay Bridge; he wans't sure if she wanted to be awake for that part or not. It wasn't as nice a view, or as symbolic of one as the Golden Gate bridge, but...still.
"...Allison? Wake up, we're almost there." Slight, small shake of her shoulder.
She can sleep in a car, and she can sleep around people. But sleeping heavily in a car around people is not going to happen. So, she wakes up fairly quickly. "We're there?" Almost there, he said.
Hey, bridges are archetecture, and she likes that. So she's fairly fascnated by the bridge for about a minute or two.
That? Makes John smile, a little. At this hour the traffic on the bridge into San Francisco is fairly simple, considering it's Friday and only a few hours before the bars close for the night. Japantown isn't exactly right off the freeway, so there's a lot of driving down somewhat narrow streets up and down hills for a bit before they get there. "Do you want to check into the hotel first or eat?"
"Check in." Because she should probably call and let her parents know that they got there safe. "And then eat. Where is there to eat?"
John still has a four o'clock AM appointment with a concerned Charlie, via phone. "All sorts of places. I mean, it's late, so not as many as will be open tomorrow, but we could still probably find whatever you want." John is so not a picky eater. Onward, to the hotel!
All of these conversations will be amazing, possibly loud. "Burgers?" Woman, why would you want a burger this late at night? "I'm not picky." And her mother wasn't just thrown in a mental hospital.
Oh, yes. Very amazing. "I know where we can get burgers, yeah." And it's not fast food, woot. John will never ask her why she wants to eat a certain thing at a certain hour.
Checking into the hotel isn't too time consuming. Even for a Friday, it's slow, so at least there's rooms. Although the question of how many beds immediately trips John up. "...Uhm." Allison? Help?
"One," she says, quickly. Perhaps too quickly, considering the amused reaction of the girl at the desk. Hell. They already ran off for the weekend. They can have one bed.
John decides to hide his reaction by estimating the distance between the emergency exit and the desk. It works, more or less. Then they have keys and go on up. John will immediately sit down and start writing a list. So that he's doing something while Allison talks to her parents. Other than listening in, anyway.
The conversation that occurs mostly consists of a lot of 'yes, mom', 'no, dad', and 'I love you too's. It's not really that interesting on her side of things. Mostly, she is distracted and watching John write his list. Finally, she gets off the phone. "What're you doing?"
"Making a list." Obviously. "We should...probably get you clothes, tomorrow. For the weekend." John can totally live in this pair of jeans and shirt until Monday. He's not so certain that Allison would want to. "How did it go?"
"Okaaay." She definetly would not want to. And she's not sure she'd like the idea of him living in one pair of clothes all weekend. "Same as before, but with less yelling and more sleepy."
What? It's on the list! John organizes his life by lists, but the serious ones are never written down. "Charlie might yell." John looks thrilled already. Also, if they buy her clothes, he'll get some of his own. Otherwise it's an odd behavior.
Then, she will certainly buy clothes. "Is it bad? If Charlie yells?"
A shrug. "He rarely does, but...well, he wasn't expecting any of this. Isn't. With my mother or with you." In actuality, it bothers John a lot when Charlie yells. Because he's used to Sarah yelling. He tries not to get used to anyone else yelling. He tries not to yell, himself.
"Sorry." She has no idea why she's sorry. "Are you going to stay with him? When we go back?"
John blinks. Look who hasn't planned that far ahead. "Until graduation, at least." After that? Well. It kind of depends on how much money he can get his hands on.
Wow, John. Not planning ahead? Shocking. "Okay. Good." She sits on the bed. "Dinner now?"
What? His plan got as far as 'should I skip town or not' and then some girl was banging on the window of his car. "Sure. Dinner. If you want." Since you sat down and now he's confused.
Lucky him. "Are you hungry?" And she's confused about his confusion.
"...Not really." A shrug. "But I'm fine with eating if you want to."
She shrugs. "I'm sure we can order food. Whatever you want to do." Oh, this'll be a while.
It will, John sees this. He sighs and sits down next to her. "I don't know what I want to do. I don't eat much. I don't sleep much. It's really up to you. Really."
Careful, John. All those things you don't do, she might start wondering if you think you're a robot. No she won't. "We'll order in, go out tomorrow. Okay?"
It is going to take months for him to do any of those things like a normal person. Years, even. It may never exactly happen. "Sounds good." Look, a menu! And a pen! "Circle what you want?"
It probably never will, not totally.
Allison does exactly that, handing back the menu. "You too." Eaaaat, John.
John nods, picks up the phone. Orders her burger and whatever else. Orders chili cheese fries. Glance. Raises his eyebrow at the delivery fee, but, what the hell. It's San Francisco. Nearly 2AM. Order, placed!
"Now what?" She's never run off to another city, especially not one so far. Shaky ground here, John.
John shrugs. "You know this is one thing I haven't planned to hell and back? I've never been on vacation. Last time I was here I was so angry I couldn't see straight, so I wouldn't suggest any of the things I did then."
"Well. We can get a book or something, I guess." A book. Oh, Allison.
So. That catches her interest. "What did you do then?"
"We've got four hours or so before any decent sized bookstore opens." Well, he more or less opened himself for that question, didn't he. "I got into a few fights." For starters.
"Okay. I don't particularly feel like getting in a fight. What else?"
"Even if you did I wouldn't let you." Hey, more emotion again. "Talked to some folks. Went to the Filmore, but they're closed at this hour. Wandered around. Not a whole heck of a lot. What do people normally do on vacations?"
She hmms, and thinks about it. "Go to museums. Shows. Shopping. Relaxing things. Do things that they don't do when they aren't on vacation."
"All right." He thinks they could probably manage most of that. "What do people on vacation normally do when it's after 2 in the morning and someone is going to call them in two hours so there isn't much use to going to bed?" John would probably end up watching Cartoon Network or something. If he was by himself.
Loooong pause. "I don't know, I've never had that happen before. Watch a movie?"
John might be a little glad it's never happened before. "Movie sounds good." Remote, found! Television, on! "Any preference?"
Now they're both doing something new. Clearly. "That one." Oh. Good. Elektra.
Hey, they'll be distracted. By food arriving in a few minutes and Charlie's phone call, so. "All right." Click! We have opening credits! John will take off his shoes and get comfortable. On the one bed. Woo.
The One Bed. At least it's a fairly large bed, right? Sort of. While the credits start, she gets to work on another bottle of root beer and pixie stix.
Oh lord. The One Bed, is this like the One Ring? Mark that as somewhere John's brain doesn't need to go.
All right we've got Greek lettering and Asian-inspired animation. John can tell already that this movie doesn't know what to do with itself. And the moment the guy in the chair starts talking, John snorts softly. "Oh, he's gonna die."
"Why is he sitting in front of that giant window if someone's trying to kill him?" That's like poking someone who's crazy. Oh. Right.
"Because he's an idiot. Case in point." Hey there's a ninja in red clothes. What. What. Thank god the food delivery person just knocked on the door. John will go deal with that, now.
"I don't know why he's laughing. I can see her coming, and I'm not even in the movie." What, Allison. Oh, is the food there?
There is. Allison's burger and John's chili cheese fries, yum. Here, there's a tray for them to go on the bed and everything so she doesn't have to get up. "Right because when someone's paying you to keep them alive, you laugh at the things they say. Real smart." John shakes his head, starts digging into the fries with a fork. "Three men, at least, are already down and this guy doesn't know."
"Don't they have radios? They should have radios." She cannot fathom this movie. Oh, beeping monitors. "Shouldn't he be...doing something?" Slicing her burger into sections. That's not weird.
"No his whole purpose is to be killed by Electra." John will just smirk to himself through this whole thing. "It is way too late for any of those orders."
"Rocks fall, everyone dies?" No one said she wasn't a geek.
"Chick in red catsuit falls, everyone dies." No one said either of them weren't. Or incredibly snarky, at times.
Snark and sarcasm are awesome obviously. "She's so not behind tha door."
"Nope." Lo and behold. "Waste of ammo, doing that in the first place." And John watches the guy get stabbed with a Sai. And try to fight back, and get knocked out. "Watch, the jerk in the chair is totally going to try talking to her."
"...what the hell was that noise?" Chairs don't make that noise. Burger, eat!
They really, really don't. "Poor post-production sound editing?" That's John's guess, anyway. And then she leaves, how unamazing. Still in red, mind you. "Right. That building doesn't stand out at all."
She snorts. "The treasure. Of course there's a treasure."
"How much you want to bet that Treasure is Elektra?" John rolls his eyes.
"I hope not. She's annoying." And that's no treasure. Sip of her sugar drink. Want some, John?
Sure, he'll have some sugary doom, why not? "Oh so that's her super-power or whatever the heck? To visualize what people are doing? Can't she afford a cleaning service?"
Yummy sugary doom. "I guess not. What the hell." Burger eating. "What're we going to do after he calls?"
Blink, blink. "Sleep?"
"So you'll get up at what, seven? Eight?" She makes a face at the movie. "McCabe?"
John nods. "Hopefully." He might make it to 6AM. If he's lucky. "Yeah that name's pretty ridiculous." Then Elektra starts talking about DNA and John laughs.
"Okay." She looks at him when he laughs, obviously surprised. And then back to the movie. "Is he her boss?"
"No. More like...a broker? She gets jobs from him. But she doesn't need him, it's probably the other way around."
"Why bother, then?" Weird look on her face here.
"Plot by four?" John doesn't get it. He's rather...aware that it doesn't always work that way. "Probably so that there's a face for the contracts to talk to." What, John.
Well. That gets a weird look. "Why can't she talk to them?"
"Because she kills people for a living."
"Why would they have to know the person they talk to and the person they hire are the same girl?" Oh, Allison.
"If they're smart, they could tell a hustler from a murderer. Body language, the way they hold themselves. Physical cues." John is thinking of the people he knows.
"Huh. Could you tell?"
John doesn't answer that for a few moments. Not because of the riveting dialogue in the film, you can be sure of that. "...Yes. I think so."
She hmms at that. Isn't sure she wants to know how. "I don't think that I could tell."
"Probably not. Most people don't...look for that kind of thing, I think." John, for instance, thinks that David Young would be better able to defend himself from an attack in a familiar environment. Don't ask him why he thinks of these things, sometimes.
A familiar environment as opposed to a public park, say? "What kinds of things would you have to look for, if you were looking?"
Something like that. More weapons of opportunity. But John was thinking of hand-to-hand encounters when he thought of that, not guns. "How they stand when they're crowded is a good way to start. Do they keep their hands to themselves? How aware are they of the people around them. Things like that."
"Huh." She makes an interesting face. This is either regarding John or the fact that Elektra is being crazy about her groceries. "What is she doing."
"Being bizarre." Headtilt, go! "Yeah that's an awesome use of OCD right there."
"I'd never get any groceries unpacked like that." Snort. "Yum yums."
Oh, the faces John is making. "If that is how this guy hits on people, he is never going to get anywhere." Eyerolling. "I wonder if she plans on leaving all the fruit there until it spoils."
Snicker. "She's going to get fruit flies." ew. "And now a lake."
"That'll be fun for her to clean." Really, ew. "...and now a pool. Oh, it's Daddy. Okay." Movie, you have officially annoyed the boy.
Her too. "This movie's stupid." Well said, Allison.
"It is. Do we want to keep watching it?"
She hmms. "I don't know. Not really. Maybe. Do you?"
John glances at his phone. "Charlie's going to call soon. It does't really matter to me, either way, but I doubt the movie is going to up and get better."
"It might get worse, actually." She will even turn it off. Away, bad movie!
John nods. It could have, yes, and he hopes he'll never find out. Instead of having to worry about that too long, John's phone rings. Guess who?
Oh, it's Charlie. Yay! While John takes care of that, she'll go about finishing her burger and sugar drink. Maybe steal a couple of his fries. Watch the news with the mute on.
John will, in fact, take care of that. The first thing he says is "I really need you to stop yelling." So. It's going about as well as expected.
There's also "I haven't decided," "We agreed on Monday," and "To be honest if she wasn't here I probably wouldn't bother coming home. Just so you know."
Yeah. Great conversation.
Wonderful conversation.
When the news is depressing, she switches to cartoons. Thank you, late night cartoon channels. She'll keep an eye on John, though. Steal a few more fries. Worry.
Feel free to steal as many fries as you like, Allison, because John's probably not going to have much of an appetite after this conversation. "No, I haven't talked to them. She did." Pause. John gets up and starts pacing with the phone. "Well I don't really see why they would want to talk to me, they have my number anyway." More pacing. And then John stops, suddenly. "...Yeah? I don't know. Not if she's like that, they should've sedated her." Frowning. "I'm sorry but what do you want me to say? That's impossible, she couldn't do anything like that? It isn't. She has."
Marvelous conversation.
She just might eat more. She just might.
The tone the conversation is taking makes her turn off the tv and watch him Worried. Concerned. A little annoyed at Charlie and maybe her parents.
"No, I didn't say that." John gives Allison an apologetic shrug and mouths I'm sorry. "Not over the phone and I won't be home before Monday." The pacing starts again. "No, not email either. Because, I'd rather do that in person." John sighs a bit. "I am being careful...I know. You too. Okay." Click. And now John will look out the window for a few moments.
Time to turn his earlier questions back on him, hm? "What did he say? How mad was he?" Why sedatives? Why careful?
"I think he's more overwhelmed than mad. He said...a lot of things. Your parents called him, I think, at some point." Well. Obviously. "He's not hapy we're gne for the weekend. Neither are your parents." Neither are the police but there is nothing inherently illegal about driving north in the same state.
"There were problems when he went to visit my mother."
She was well aware her parents are not happy with this. The fact that the police aren't would, perhaps, freak her out a bit "What kind of problems? What happened? God, he didn't tell her John was gone, did he?
Well the police are more unhappy that John isn't around for them to glare at. Allison isn't, as far as they're concerned, in serious danger. Asses. "Well they didn't want to let him, at first, because it was after visiting hours. And apparently she asked for me." How much do you want to bet?
Not a thing. No bets. "What did they tell her?" Allison has suspicions.
"For one, that they're not sure it's a good idea." They being...the hospital, Charlie, and the cops, John is assuming. "For another, I'd have to agree to it." Which isn't going to happen this week, people. "She demanded to know if they'd locked me up somewhere. Charlie told her that I'd gone away for the weekend." John's not sure what deity to thank that apparently Allison's name didn't come up in any of that.
"What'd she say?" Allison is guessing that that's where the sedatives came in.
"Less saying, more...screaming, apparently." Yep, right in one.
She makes a face at that. "I'm sorry. Is she going to be okay, did he say?"
"He doesn't know." John's opinion is that neither he nor his mother are ever going to be okay. He's also more than a little freaked out that some doctor will suggest he does talk to her, in order to assist therapy or something. At which point John will have to deal with Sarah's hints that she break him out.
Time to sit on the floor.
She watches him, carefully. Sits on the edge of the bed closest to him. "You don't have to go see her. If you don't want to. They can't make you."
John sighs and focuses on the floor. "I don't know if I want to or not." So that's bothering him. A lot.
"What would happen if you did? What would she say?"
"She would ask me to get her out."
She tilts her head, watching him. "Would you?" Could he?
He could. From where Sarah is now, anyway. "...No."
"Why not?" Not that she's not relieved that he wouldn't.
"What good would that do?" Because it would get so much worse.
"It's probably better for her there. She can't get out, right?"
"If they sedate her."
"If they don't, then what?"
"Then it depends on how fast they get her to Pescadero State and whether or not they paid attention from the last time she broke out."
"Oh." She's not sure she wants to know anymore. She's not sure that she doesn't. Details are important. Of course. But they're frightening. They're variable. "What would she do?"
"...Try to find me." That's the first thing. "Are you sure you want to talk about this?"
"Then what?" She shakes her head. "Not really. I'm not, not sure." And yet.
"If she could find me she'd insist we move. Back to the desert for a while. If she couldn't, I'm not sure what she would do." And yet, indeed.
"Would you go? If she found you, would you go?"
"If I thought she would hurt people instead, yes."
She nods. "I hope she doesn't get out." For entirely selfish reasons.
"Me too." For not as selfish reasons. Those will come later.
She nods. Of course. "Now what? Sleep?"
John sighs again. "Sleep would be good..." Nightmares are likely.
That'll be educational. "Okay. Then, we should sleep."
"Okay." You're still on the floor, John. "...You don't have pajamas."
She's wondering if you're going to sleep on the floor. "I can sleep in my clothes."
"...Okay." He might.
"...don't sleep on the floor." Apparently, she objects.
Blink, blink, goes the boy. "You sure about that?" Apparently this will be the stupid question from John part of our act. The management apologizes.
And now she gets to give him another Look. Would she say it if she wasn't? "Yeah. Of course."
"...Okay. Sorry." Because he realizes that was a dumb question, so now he'll get up and help her throw away the remnants of dinner.
It doesn't take long to clean up, so she'll go brush her teeth before coming to bed. Thank God for free travel stuff in the bathroom. "Are you okay?" she did not think to ask that.
While Allison is brushing her teeth John will debate keeping on his jeans. Jeans win over slight discomfort. "Am I? No. Not really."
She sits back on the bed, thinking. "I'm sorry about that."
John sighs, shrugs. "If anyone else asked I would've said yes. Or not said anything. It's okay, it's not your fault at all."
"Okay. Go to sleep. We can talk more in the morning, okay?" Bossy, bossy.
Oh so bossy. Have a Look."I'll try, with the sleeping." And will fail.
She will also try, and weirdly not fail. Maybe not that weird. Poor John.
The desire to check on Allison constantly was pretty strong. John was glad that driving offered it's own sort of distraction.
Since they didn't need gas, John drove straight through. Got off of Highway 5 in Tracy, changing to 580 and continuing West. He didn't wake Allison until they were approaching the Bay Bridge; he wans't sure if she wanted to be awake for that part or not. It wasn't as nice a view, or as symbolic of one as the Golden Gate bridge, but...still.
"...Allison? Wake up, we're almost there." Slight, small shake of her shoulder.
She can sleep in a car, and she can sleep around people. But sleeping heavily in a car around people is not going to happen. So, she wakes up fairly quickly. "We're there?" Almost there, he said.
Hey, bridges are archetecture, and she likes that. So she's fairly fascnated by the bridge for about a minute or two.
That? Makes John smile, a little. At this hour the traffic on the bridge into San Francisco is fairly simple, considering it's Friday and only a few hours before the bars close for the night. Japantown isn't exactly right off the freeway, so there's a lot of driving down somewhat narrow streets up and down hills for a bit before they get there. "Do you want to check into the hotel first or eat?"
"Check in." Because she should probably call and let her parents know that they got there safe. "And then eat. Where is there to eat?"
John still has a four o'clock AM appointment with a concerned Charlie, via phone. "All sorts of places. I mean, it's late, so not as many as will be open tomorrow, but we could still probably find whatever you want." John is so not a picky eater. Onward, to the hotel!
All of these conversations will be amazing, possibly loud. "Burgers?" Woman, why would you want a burger this late at night? "I'm not picky." And her mother wasn't just thrown in a mental hospital.
Oh, yes. Very amazing. "I know where we can get burgers, yeah." And it's not fast food, woot. John will never ask her why she wants to eat a certain thing at a certain hour.
Checking into the hotel isn't too time consuming. Even for a Friday, it's slow, so at least there's rooms. Although the question of how many beds immediately trips John up. "...Uhm." Allison? Help?
"One," she says, quickly. Perhaps too quickly, considering the amused reaction of the girl at the desk. Hell. They already ran off for the weekend. They can have one bed.
John decides to hide his reaction by estimating the distance between the emergency exit and the desk. It works, more or less. Then they have keys and go on up. John will immediately sit down and start writing a list. So that he's doing something while Allison talks to her parents. Other than listening in, anyway.
The conversation that occurs mostly consists of a lot of 'yes, mom', 'no, dad', and 'I love you too's. It's not really that interesting on her side of things. Mostly, she is distracted and watching John write his list. Finally, she gets off the phone. "What're you doing?"
"Making a list." Obviously. "We should...probably get you clothes, tomorrow. For the weekend." John can totally live in this pair of jeans and shirt until Monday. He's not so certain that Allison would want to. "How did it go?"
"Okaaay." She definetly would not want to. And she's not sure she'd like the idea of him living in one pair of clothes all weekend. "Same as before, but with less yelling and more sleepy."
What? It's on the list! John organizes his life by lists, but the serious ones are never written down. "Charlie might yell." John looks thrilled already. Also, if they buy her clothes, he'll get some of his own. Otherwise it's an odd behavior.
Then, she will certainly buy clothes. "Is it bad? If Charlie yells?"
A shrug. "He rarely does, but...well, he wasn't expecting any of this. Isn't. With my mother or with you." In actuality, it bothers John a lot when Charlie yells. Because he's used to Sarah yelling. He tries not to get used to anyone else yelling. He tries not to yell, himself.
"Sorry." She has no idea why she's sorry. "Are you going to stay with him? When we go back?"
John blinks. Look who hasn't planned that far ahead. "Until graduation, at least." After that? Well. It kind of depends on how much money he can get his hands on.
Wow, John. Not planning ahead? Shocking. "Okay. Good." She sits on the bed. "Dinner now?"
What? His plan got as far as 'should I skip town or not' and then some girl was banging on the window of his car. "Sure. Dinner. If you want." Since you sat down and now he's confused.
Lucky him. "Are you hungry?" And she's confused about his confusion.
"...Not really." A shrug. "But I'm fine with eating if you want to."
She shrugs. "I'm sure we can order food. Whatever you want to do." Oh, this'll be a while.
It will, John sees this. He sighs and sits down next to her. "I don't know what I want to do. I don't eat much. I don't sleep much. It's really up to you. Really."
Careful, John. All those things you don't do, she might start wondering if you think you're a robot. No she won't. "We'll order in, go out tomorrow. Okay?"
It is going to take months for him to do any of those things like a normal person. Years, even. It may never exactly happen. "Sounds good." Look, a menu! And a pen! "Circle what you want?"
It probably never will, not totally.
Allison does exactly that, handing back the menu. "You too." Eaaaat, John.
John nods, picks up the phone. Orders her burger and whatever else. Orders chili cheese fries. Glance. Raises his eyebrow at the delivery fee, but, what the hell. It's San Francisco. Nearly 2AM. Order, placed!
"Now what?" She's never run off to another city, especially not one so far. Shaky ground here, John.
John shrugs. "You know this is one thing I haven't planned to hell and back? I've never been on vacation. Last time I was here I was so angry I couldn't see straight, so I wouldn't suggest any of the things I did then."
"Well. We can get a book or something, I guess." A book. Oh, Allison.
So. That catches her interest. "What did you do then?"
"We've got four hours or so before any decent sized bookstore opens." Well, he more or less opened himself for that question, didn't he. "I got into a few fights." For starters.
"Okay. I don't particularly feel like getting in a fight. What else?"
"Even if you did I wouldn't let you." Hey, more emotion again. "Talked to some folks. Went to the Filmore, but they're closed at this hour. Wandered around. Not a whole heck of a lot. What do people normally do on vacations?"
She hmms, and thinks about it. "Go to museums. Shows. Shopping. Relaxing things. Do things that they don't do when they aren't on vacation."
"All right." He thinks they could probably manage most of that. "What do people on vacation normally do when it's after 2 in the morning and someone is going to call them in two hours so there isn't much use to going to bed?" John would probably end up watching Cartoon Network or something. If he was by himself.
Loooong pause. "I don't know, I've never had that happen before. Watch a movie?"
John might be a little glad it's never happened before. "Movie sounds good." Remote, found! Television, on! "Any preference?"
Now they're both doing something new. Clearly. "That one." Oh. Good. Elektra.
Hey, they'll be distracted. By food arriving in a few minutes and Charlie's phone call, so. "All right." Click! We have opening credits! John will take off his shoes and get comfortable. On the one bed. Woo.
The One Bed. At least it's a fairly large bed, right? Sort of. While the credits start, she gets to work on another bottle of root beer and pixie stix.
Oh lord. The One Bed, is this like the One Ring? Mark that as somewhere John's brain doesn't need to go.
All right we've got Greek lettering and Asian-inspired animation. John can tell already that this movie doesn't know what to do with itself. And the moment the guy in the chair starts talking, John snorts softly. "Oh, he's gonna die."
"Why is he sitting in front of that giant window if someone's trying to kill him?" That's like poking someone who's crazy. Oh. Right.
"Because he's an idiot. Case in point." Hey there's a ninja in red clothes. What. What. Thank god the food delivery person just knocked on the door. John will go deal with that, now.
"I don't know why he's laughing. I can see her coming, and I'm not even in the movie." What, Allison. Oh, is the food there?
There is. Allison's burger and John's chili cheese fries, yum. Here, there's a tray for them to go on the bed and everything so she doesn't have to get up. "Right because when someone's paying you to keep them alive, you laugh at the things they say. Real smart." John shakes his head, starts digging into the fries with a fork. "Three men, at least, are already down and this guy doesn't know."
"Don't they have radios? They should have radios." She cannot fathom this movie. Oh, beeping monitors. "Shouldn't he be...doing something?" Slicing her burger into sections. That's not weird.
"No his whole purpose is to be killed by Electra." John will just smirk to himself through this whole thing. "It is way too late for any of those orders."
"Rocks fall, everyone dies?" No one said she wasn't a geek.
"Chick in red catsuit falls, everyone dies." No one said either of them weren't. Or incredibly snarky, at times.
Snark and sarcasm are awesome obviously. "She's so not behind tha door."
"Nope." Lo and behold. "Waste of ammo, doing that in the first place." And John watches the guy get stabbed with a Sai. And try to fight back, and get knocked out. "Watch, the jerk in the chair is totally going to try talking to her."
"...what the hell was that noise?" Chairs don't make that noise. Burger, eat!
They really, really don't. "Poor post-production sound editing?" That's John's guess, anyway. And then she leaves, how unamazing. Still in red, mind you. "Right. That building doesn't stand out at all."
She snorts. "The treasure. Of course there's a treasure."
"How much you want to bet that Treasure is Elektra?" John rolls his eyes.
"I hope not. She's annoying." And that's no treasure. Sip of her sugar drink. Want some, John?
Sure, he'll have some sugary doom, why not? "Oh so that's her super-power or whatever the heck? To visualize what people are doing? Can't she afford a cleaning service?"
Yummy sugary doom. "I guess not. What the hell." Burger eating. "What're we going to do after he calls?"
Blink, blink. "Sleep?"
"So you'll get up at what, seven? Eight?" She makes a face at the movie. "McCabe?"
John nods. "Hopefully." He might make it to 6AM. If he's lucky. "Yeah that name's pretty ridiculous." Then Elektra starts talking about DNA and John laughs.
"Okay." She looks at him when he laughs, obviously surprised. And then back to the movie. "Is he her boss?"
"No. More like...a broker? She gets jobs from him. But she doesn't need him, it's probably the other way around."
"Why bother, then?" Weird look on her face here.
"Plot by four?" John doesn't get it. He's rather...aware that it doesn't always work that way. "Probably so that there's a face for the contracts to talk to." What, John.
Well. That gets a weird look. "Why can't she talk to them?"
"Because she kills people for a living."
"Why would they have to know the person they talk to and the person they hire are the same girl?" Oh, Allison.
"If they're smart, they could tell a hustler from a murderer. Body language, the way they hold themselves. Physical cues." John is thinking of the people he knows.
"Huh. Could you tell?"
John doesn't answer that for a few moments. Not because of the riveting dialogue in the film, you can be sure of that. "...Yes. I think so."
She hmms at that. Isn't sure she wants to know how. "I don't think that I could tell."
"Probably not. Most people don't...look for that kind of thing, I think." John, for instance, thinks that David Young would be better able to defend himself from an attack in a familiar environment. Don't ask him why he thinks of these things, sometimes.
A familiar environment as opposed to a public park, say? "What kinds of things would you have to look for, if you were looking?"
Something like that. More weapons of opportunity. But John was thinking of hand-to-hand encounters when he thought of that, not guns. "How they stand when they're crowded is a good way to start. Do they keep their hands to themselves? How aware are they of the people around them. Things like that."
"Huh." She makes an interesting face. This is either regarding John or the fact that Elektra is being crazy about her groceries. "What is she doing."
"Being bizarre." Headtilt, go! "Yeah that's an awesome use of OCD right there."
"I'd never get any groceries unpacked like that." Snort. "Yum yums."
Oh, the faces John is making. "If that is how this guy hits on people, he is never going to get anywhere." Eyerolling. "I wonder if she plans on leaving all the fruit there until it spoils."
Snicker. "She's going to get fruit flies." ew. "And now a lake."
"That'll be fun for her to clean." Really, ew. "...and now a pool. Oh, it's Daddy. Okay." Movie, you have officially annoyed the boy.
Her too. "This movie's stupid." Well said, Allison.
"It is. Do we want to keep watching it?"
She hmms. "I don't know. Not really. Maybe. Do you?"
John glances at his phone. "Charlie's going to call soon. It does't really matter to me, either way, but I doubt the movie is going to up and get better."
"It might get worse, actually." She will even turn it off. Away, bad movie!
John nods. It could have, yes, and he hopes he'll never find out. Instead of having to worry about that too long, John's phone rings. Guess who?
Oh, it's Charlie. Yay! While John takes care of that, she'll go about finishing her burger and sugar drink. Maybe steal a couple of his fries. Watch the news with the mute on.
John will, in fact, take care of that. The first thing he says is "I really need you to stop yelling." So. It's going about as well as expected.
There's also "I haven't decided," "We agreed on Monday," and "To be honest if she wasn't here I probably wouldn't bother coming home. Just so you know."
Yeah. Great conversation.
Wonderful conversation.
When the news is depressing, she switches to cartoons. Thank you, late night cartoon channels. She'll keep an eye on John, though. Steal a few more fries. Worry.
Feel free to steal as many fries as you like, Allison, because John's probably not going to have much of an appetite after this conversation. "No, I haven't talked to them. She did." Pause. John gets up and starts pacing with the phone. "Well I don't really see why they would want to talk to me, they have my number anyway." More pacing. And then John stops, suddenly. "...Yeah? I don't know. Not if she's like that, they should've sedated her." Frowning. "I'm sorry but what do you want me to say? That's impossible, she couldn't do anything like that? It isn't. She has."
Marvelous conversation.
She just might eat more. She just might.
The tone the conversation is taking makes her turn off the tv and watch him Worried. Concerned. A little annoyed at Charlie and maybe her parents.
"No, I didn't say that." John gives Allison an apologetic shrug and mouths I'm sorry. "Not over the phone and I won't be home before Monday." The pacing starts again. "No, not email either. Because, I'd rather do that in person." John sighs a bit. "I am being careful...I know. You too. Okay." Click. And now John will look out the window for a few moments.
Time to turn his earlier questions back on him, hm? "What did he say? How mad was he?" Why sedatives? Why careful?
"I think he's more overwhelmed than mad. He said...a lot of things. Your parents called him, I think, at some point." Well. Obviously. "He's not hapy we're gne for the weekend. Neither are your parents." Neither are the police but there is nothing inherently illegal about driving north in the same state.
"There were problems when he went to visit my mother."
She was well aware her parents are not happy with this. The fact that the police aren't would, perhaps, freak her out a bit "What kind of problems? What happened? God, he didn't tell her John was gone, did he?
Well the police are more unhappy that John isn't around for them to glare at. Allison isn't, as far as they're concerned, in serious danger. Asses. "Well they didn't want to let him, at first, because it was after visiting hours. And apparently she asked for me." How much do you want to bet?
Not a thing. No bets. "What did they tell her?" Allison has suspicions.
"For one, that they're not sure it's a good idea." They being...the hospital, Charlie, and the cops, John is assuming. "For another, I'd have to agree to it." Which isn't going to happen this week, people. "She demanded to know if they'd locked me up somewhere. Charlie told her that I'd gone away for the weekend." John's not sure what deity to thank that apparently Allison's name didn't come up in any of that.
"What'd she say?" Allison is guessing that that's where the sedatives came in.
"Less saying, more...screaming, apparently." Yep, right in one.
She makes a face at that. "I'm sorry. Is she going to be okay, did he say?"
"He doesn't know." John's opinion is that neither he nor his mother are ever going to be okay. He's also more than a little freaked out that some doctor will suggest he does talk to her, in order to assist therapy or something. At which point John will have to deal with Sarah's hints that she break him out.
Time to sit on the floor.
She watches him, carefully. Sits on the edge of the bed closest to him. "You don't have to go see her. If you don't want to. They can't make you."
John sighs and focuses on the floor. "I don't know if I want to or not." So that's bothering him. A lot.
"What would happen if you did? What would she say?"
"She would ask me to get her out."
She tilts her head, watching him. "Would you?" Could he?
He could. From where Sarah is now, anyway. "...No."
"Why not?" Not that she's not relieved that he wouldn't.
"What good would that do?" Because it would get so much worse.
"It's probably better for her there. She can't get out, right?"
"If they sedate her."
"If they don't, then what?"
"Then it depends on how fast they get her to Pescadero State and whether or not they paid attention from the last time she broke out."
"Oh." She's not sure she wants to know anymore. She's not sure that she doesn't. Details are important. Of course. But they're frightening. They're variable. "What would she do?"
"...Try to find me." That's the first thing. "Are you sure you want to talk about this?"
"Then what?" She shakes her head. "Not really. I'm not, not sure." And yet.
"If she could find me she'd insist we move. Back to the desert for a while. If she couldn't, I'm not sure what she would do." And yet, indeed.
"Would you go? If she found you, would you go?"
"If I thought she would hurt people instead, yes."
She nods. "I hope she doesn't get out." For entirely selfish reasons.
"Me too." For not as selfish reasons. Those will come later.
She nods. Of course. "Now what? Sleep?"
John sighs again. "Sleep would be good..." Nightmares are likely.
That'll be educational. "Okay. Then, we should sleep."
"Okay." You're still on the floor, John. "...You don't have pajamas."
She's wondering if you're going to sleep on the floor. "I can sleep in my clothes."
"...Okay." He might.
"...don't sleep on the floor." Apparently, she objects.
Blink, blink, goes the boy. "You sure about that?" Apparently this will be the stupid question from John part of our act. The management apologizes.
And now she gets to give him another Look. Would she say it if she wasn't? "Yeah. Of course."
"...Okay. Sorry." Because he realizes that was a dumb question, so now he'll get up and help her throw away the remnants of dinner.
It doesn't take long to clean up, so she'll go brush her teeth before coming to bed. Thank God for free travel stuff in the bathroom. "Are you okay?" she did not think to ask that.
While Allison is brushing her teeth John will debate keeping on his jeans. Jeans win over slight discomfort. "Am I? No. Not really."
She sits back on the bed, thinking. "I'm sorry about that."
John sighs, shrugs. "If anyone else asked I would've said yes. Or not said anything. It's okay, it's not your fault at all."
"Okay. Go to sleep. We can talk more in the morning, okay?" Bossy, bossy.
Oh so bossy. Have a Look."I'll try, with the sleeping." And will fail.
She will also try, and weirdly not fail. Maybe not that weird. Poor John.