(no subject)
Icly marked private, written in a hasty scrawl of Cyrillic and chicken scratch.
I told her. I told her it wouldn't work, and now she feels worse. She won't even speak me to because--I guess I could have been, I don't know, less brusque. Probably saying they were fucking nutters was out of line, but for God's sake they were! And Andre! How could he have...have just facilitated this? Like it was completely normal? Like Kathryn just time-hopped every sodding day?
God, when I think what could've happened--what could have gone wrong... I don't even want to think about it. I just want her to stop this nonsense. We've got enough shit to handle without one of us going completely barmy.
It's late in the Warren apartment when Lucy pulls out her phone and dials Kathryn's number. Then again, it's never too late for gossip. She is a dutiful matchmaker, anyway, and entirely too curious as to the rest of the evening following her departure--namely, what the hell happened between Remy and Kathryn. So, she dials, and waits.
Despite the hour Kathryn is still wide awake and fully dressed. She's sitting cross-legged on the couch staring at the TV, but not really watching the images playing across the screen. One hand plays nervously over Raylai's ears as she strokes the kitten who's actually willingly submitting to this attention. When the phone rings both jump before Kathryn reaches over, scrabbling for the phone. "Hello?" She asks cautiously.
"All right then, Kath?" Lucy says cheerily, flopping onto her bed on her end of the phone. Down to business. "So? How did it go?" she asks, all innuendos and sly grins.
Kathryn blinks, pulling herself upright again on the couch as she grabs for the remote, muting the TV. "Huh? Lucy? Hey!" She blinks again, orienting herself. "What? How'd what go?" She's a little dense tonight, too many things on her mind right now.
Lucy smiles into the phone. "You know. Your /walk home/?" The seemingly innocent activity is layered in suggestion. Were Kathryn there, she could almost have seen Lucy's eyebrows waggling. Suggestively!
"Oh!" Kathryn sits up straight, the proverbial light-bulb coming on. "Oh yeah! Sorry, just...distracted." She tosses the remote to the side, curling up against the corner of the couch. "Went good! We just walked home...chatted. It was good." She nods, even though Lucy can't see it.
"Distracted?" Lucy repeats, sitting up. "Something the matter?"
"No, no." Kathryn's quick to answer. "You know, just the same stuff that it's been all along. Hey, thanks for dragging me out the other night though, it was fun!" She switches the topic back to that subject.
Lucy eyes the phone. "Kath," she says seriously. "I'm happy to drag you out for fun, but you sound--odd. Really, is something wrong?"
Kathryn lets out a faint sigh, pausing before she answers. "No, no, I'm okay. Seriously. It's just been a long couple of days, ya know? Stuff starts wearing on you." She sounds a bit evasive as she gives the answer she hopes Lucy'll buy.
Lucy doesn't. She is very shrewd. "It certainly does," she says vaguely. "How about I come down, we can watch a movie or something? Jen's just gone to the shop and picked up some Oreos," she offers.
Normally Kathryn'd jump at an offer like this. Not tonight though. "Thanks. But I'm just...I'm pretty out of things tonight. Um, I think I might just go out for a walk, then head to bed." She replies, just as vague. It's not a /complete/ lie.
"A walk." Very suspicious. "I hate to pry, love, but you're awfully shifty tonight."
"Yeah, just a walk. You know, clear my head, work things out a bit. It helps." Kathryn draws herself up, a slightly defensive edge growing. "I'm not shifty, I'm just /tired/. "
"Work what out a bit?" Lucy asks, rising from the bed. "Kath, you aren't--this isn't about all that time traveling stuff, is it?"
Kathryn winces. Bad wording. "Lucy...I already told you I'm going to do this." She sighs.
From suspicious to worrisome in half a minute. Lucy gets up quickly, moving out of the bedroom. "And /I've/ told you it's dangerous. I thought you were just--I don't know, de-stressing!"
"I wasn't just saying that because it sounded good! I meant it!" Kathryn insists, standing up quickly. "I have to do this. Please do not make me go over this again. Please." Kathryn practically begs.
"What, /now/?" Lucy asks, voice rising. "You're not going now!"
"Lucy. Please." Kathryn shakes her head to herself.
"I'm coming down," she says firmly. Thankfully, a pair of flats are by the door, or she would not bother with them at all. "Stay there, I'm coming down."
"Lucy, no, don't do that. You don't need to do that." Kathryn's quick to insist. "I'm fine!"
"You're clearly not. Stay put!" she snaps into the phone before quickly shutting it off and rushing out the door. This is a problem. A very big Problem.
"No, no!" Kathryn insists to the dial tone. Pulling the phone away from her ear she glares at it. "Crap, crap, /crap/." She mutters at the phone. There's now a kink in her plans. A very big kink. Lucy calls Kathryn to gossip and gets more than she bargained for.
Kathryn rubs her hands together nervously as she steps into the alley, her previously determined footsteps slowing. Her steps and her heartbeat pound loud in her ears, so loud she's certain her companion must be able to hear it. It's late and dark, and Kathryn glances around slightly. Somewhere nearby a cat yowls and another answers with a hiss, making Kathryn jump. She shivers, looking up at Andre. There's still a smell of smoke lingering near the rubble, causing her stomach to knot up, tighter then it has been the whole walk down here. "Well..." She finally says, her voice barely above a whisper but ringing loudly in her own hearing.
Andre follows Kathryn slowly and stiffly, his steps almost a throwback to how they were much sooner after his hip was broken in this very alley. But this time, he's not really using his cane for physical support so much as emotional; he grips it tightly, for certain, but the angle at which it is resting compared to the flat of the ground is not one that would provide much support. The Californian's nose wrinkles at the smell of the stagnant smoke, and his head twitches as the cats yowl, but he ultimately makes it in behind Kathryn anyway, breathing heavily and then repeating, "Well..."
Kathryn takes a deep shaking breath, suddenly more nervous then she ever could have guessed she'd be at coming back here. Her stomach tightens and she twists her hands together a few more times, before pulling them apart and forcing them into her pockets, reassuring herself that her phone was still in place. "Sorry. This is just...it's weird." She admits, looking up to Andre. "Um. Okay." She glances back at the rubble. "I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna call the cops. I'm gonna do everything I can to keep everyone out." She repeats out loud what she's been telling herself in her head for hours. "Listen um...I don't know if.../I'll/ be coming back to /here/." She starts slowly, attention again on Andre. "So...I mean...after I go you don't have to stay around. If you don't want to. I just needed someone to come with me this far." Her voice lowers.
Andre pries one of his hands off of his cane, then reaches over to reassuringly and gently pat Kathryn on the upper arm. "You'll do fine. If you're that resolved to do it, it'll only help." He nods stiffly, then takes another long breath, shoulders rising and falling with the expansion and contraction of his lungs. "But I'm going to stay here. In case you do come back right here right now," he decides. And then, after a second or so he adds, "Also because I'd like to see the building suddenly reappear when you fix it!" This is followed by a very quiet, though anxious, laugh.
The corners of Kathryn's mouth pull upwards as she makes an amused sound in her throat, not quite a laugh, but a break in the tension. "You'll have to tell me what it looked like." She nods, then suddenly steps forward, pulling Andre into a tight hug. "Thank you. For...all of this." She murmurs into his shirt before reluctantly pulling away and facing back towards the rubble. "Okay." She breaths in. "Here goes nothing."
It's a strange sight Lucy runs into. Her legs are sore and her breath is raw from running all the way from Autumn Lights to the remains of the Sanctuary, following her best guess for where Kathryn was. She had found the woman's apartment empty and--well, now all this was about to happen. Not. Good. "/Kathryn!/" she shouts, sprinting forward, her slung-up arm smacking awkwardly into her side. "Kathryn--stop!"
"I should've brought a camera," Andre considers, shaking his head. "Too late for that, though." His eyes open wider at the hug, and he wraps the arm not occupied with cane-holding back around Kathryn, patting her back twice in the process. As she pulls away, he takes another slow long inhale...which comes rushing back out hard enough to whistle as Lucy sprints into the alley. Andre squints toward the running figure, but the accent identifies her faster than visuals do. "Lucy? What're you doing here?"
Kathryn startles violently at the sudden shout, spinning around, eyes wide. "Lucy? What? What are you doing here? I told you I was alright!" She insists, something between still startled, and irritated.
"What the /fuck/ do you think I'm doing here?" Lucy cries back, cheeks and nose red from running and breathing hard. Her breath comes no slower as she arrives in front of them, panting, livid, and practically sparking. "And--Andre! You aren't...you aren't /helping/ her, are you?" she asks, incredulity almost making it a gasp. "You aren't helping her in this--this madness!?"
Andre takes a few awkward steps backwards, relying on the cane more for support in this direction, then looking at Lucy with a furrowed brow. "She asked me if I'd just come out here with her," he explains tentatively, "so I guess that's helping, yes. Even though it's all I can do..."
"What? It's /not/ madness!" Kathryn takes several steps closing the distance between her and Lucy. "It's not madness, and I'm not crazy! Right Andre? Tell her I'm not crazy!" Kathryn spins to face Andre at this. "He's helping me because he believes me! Which is what I'd /hoped/ you'd do too!" She looks quickly back to Lucy. She's come too far to let this go without a fight.
Lucy's face pinks, outraged. "It is one thing to believe in someone, and quite another to let them go gallivanting off to save the fucking day!" she half-shouts, checking her voice with a quick, accusatory glance at Andre. "Mutants are /not/ superheroes, Kathryn. We have limits!"
"She described the morning of April 18th 1906 as perfectly as every historical book I've ever read about it," Andre hereby confesses to having read more than a couple, "but didn't know what it was." There is still surprise in his tone here, as if this is a new revelation. "I believe her for that." He bobs his head, worried expression tilting into a frown as Lucy sends visual accusations his way. "How does anyone know a limit until they've tested it? And I sure think we need superheroes if there are enough super/villains/ around /breaking/ things." On the penultimate word, he glances first at the rubble of the Sanctuary, then at his own leg.
"So what, we're all just supposed to look away and do nothing because 'it's not our place'? Screw that!" Kathryn shouts back. As Andre speaks she points towards him with a fast nod. "See? See, I am not making this up! I didn't know what I was seeing, but Andre did! That's gotta mean something! And how do you know it's not in my limits? Why is this so hard for you to believe, Lucy?"
"Did you plan it?" Lucy shoots back. "Did you /plan/ on going back there? It just /happened!/" She opens her mouth, claps it back shut, sighing quietly to herself. Her eyes drift, upwards and around the alley, perhaps looking for aid. Walls, unfortunately, are rather terrible helpers. "It doesn't matter what she /saw/, Andre. You don't know what could happen, if you just go back and fuck with things. There are /always/ repercussions, Kathryn. You may make things worse. Have you considered that? That you'll make things worse?" Her voice sinks on the last, a quiet repetition, a plea.
Andre's mouth opens as if to interject several times during Lucy's tirade, but he comes out with no phrases until shortly after she has finished. "It was already..." he begins very quietly, then cuts himself off, leaning forward against the support of his cane and looking at some indeterminate point between Kathryn and Lucy.
"Yes. I did plan it. And I'm going to do it as much as I can without messing with anything else." Kathryn's voice starts to come down again. "And I've thought about that. And I've realized...in this case...it can't /get/ worse. It doesn't get worse then...living in a haze and gulping Nyquil just so I can just collapse between the haze." She's dropped from shouting to pleading, looking between Lucy and Andre both. "I'm going to do this. You can't stop me."
Lucy opens her mouth slowly, licks her lips. "You could die," she says.
Andre rocks slightly in place, using his cane as a fulcrum. "If...the police call doesn't work and she's stuck in there..." He pauses briefly on this thought, frowning deeply. "...again, then it'll be just like before and everyone will get out again." The end of the phrase inflects upward, a questioning uncertainty rather than a matter-of-fact statement.
"But Kath in the coffee shop won't...die." Kathryn looks to Lucy. "It'll work. I've thought it out enough, it'll work. Andre's right. And either way...it's gotta be better then this." She nods, taking several steps back. "I'm not talking about it anymore. All I ever do is talk about stuff." Another step backwards. "No more." Her gaze flickers over both again, she smiles quickly, then with a golden flash and a thunk like something dropped on a hardwood floor Kathryn disappears.
Lucy says, "Kathryn--!" Lucy freezes, staring at the flash. Breath comes in hard gasps, her eyes darting everywhere as if Kathryn will appear randomly, shout 'April Fools' and prove this to just be a cruel joke. But Kathryn does not appear. "Kathryn...?!" Her chest feels tight--when did she start hyperventilating? Suddenly her hand is on the wall, steadying her. "/Kathryn!/"
Andre stiffens as Kathryn disappears, eyes latched on to the space of air that she formerly occupied. "I thought she was going to give us some /warning/ first!" he exclaims, tenor voice near the top of its range. "Oh jeez..." He grits his teeth, then looks back toward Lucy, following that train of thought quite literally by shuffling over to the wall. The wall against which his leg was smashed. Lovely. "/You/ ok?"
Another flash of golden light appears at the tail end of Andre's last comment, cutting Lucy off before she can answer. Kathryn reappears, looking in one piece, in fact completely unharmed or changed in any way. As soon as she again hits the ground she tries to run forward, but stops, confused. It's dark. And the building is still in ruins. Confusion and concern spread across her face. "Wait. Wait...this isn't /right/!"
"Kathryn?" Lucy says quietly, staring at her. "What--?" Her face firms abruptly, and in one swift motion, the hand against the wall launches forward and latches onto Kathryn's wrist. She does not explain why, but it's safe to assume it's not a gesture of relief. More likely to make sure Kathryn remains exactly where she is.
"B...wha?" Andre is eloquent when he is surprised. Biting down on his lower lip, he turns his head rapidly between facing the still-destroyed building and the recently-returned Kathryn. "Kath?" he questions, as if it could be anyone else, "Did you make it back at all? Are you ok now?"
"Wha...?" Kathryn jerks back trying to pull herself free from Lucy's grip. "Lemme..." She lets that thought trail, looking to Andre. "/No/! That's just it...I was supposed to be there /now/! It didn't work!" She pulls again against Lucy. "I think it's because I did it so quickly before! I wasn't focused! I need to focus on it this time, I've got to do it again!" She insists, all of her sentences running together into more like one long run-on.
A little shock, enough to distract but not to hurt, shoots from Lucy's hand to Kathryn's wrist. "Stop it," she demands harshly. "You tried, it didn't work. Now /stop it/."
"Maybe you're...too nervous to focus?" Andre suggests, himself nervous to voice the phrase. He is unaware of Lucy's use of her own powers. His, needless to say, are useless in this situation.
The shock is enough to startle Kathryn, and slow her words down, but not dissuade her from what she wants. Even though it was the hand held by Lucy that got shocked, she shakes her free hand suddenly. "Oww, dammit, no!" She barks back at Lucy. "No, no, I'm not! I'm fine! That one was just too fast." She turns to Andre, alternating now back to pleading. "I can /do/ this. I just need one more shot. Just once more! That's it...Andre, tell her!" She tries to jerk free from Lucy again.
"You sound like a fucking /junkie!/" Lucy snaps, pulling her hand back sharply. "Shit, Kathryn--it's not safe!"
"Not working the first time is just going to make you /more/ nervous about the second time!" Andre gestures with his free hand toward the rubble. "If you don't practice first, when you're calm. It's like that for performances, so...practice going somewhere /safe/?"
Kathryn jerks her hand back as Lucy does the same, rubbing at her wrist where she was shocked. "It is safe! I've been doing it since I was /14/ and I'm still here." She snaps back, crossing to stand with Andre between her and Lucy. "No. I'm fine." She insists between clenched teeth. "I'm fine." She closes her eyes, taking several deep breaths. "I just need a minute, then I'm going to try it again. I just everyone" One eye opens to stare hard at Lucy with a pointed look. "To just be quiet for a minute...let me regroup."
"Practice, he says," she says, staring incredulously at Andre. "Like it's a sodding /game/... I can't believe you! You're both out of your fucking heads!" Perhaps antagonizing is not the best method of convincing her friends of the insanity of the situation, but sensibility has never gotten on so well with stress. "I can't stop you," she states, finally and reluctantly. "Just--God, fuck." Whatever 'just' was, it is lost in a harried scraping of fingers through hair.
Andre winces as Lucy assesses his insanity with profanity, looking briefly at his feet before realizing, "If I wanted to stop it, I wouldn't be able to, and that said, I think has the potential for great good if it works, so why not support it?"
Kathryn winces at Lucy's words, but flashes Andre a grateful smile, partially hidden in the near darkness of the alley. "This isn't a game! And I swear to you I'm not crazy!" She reasserts her sanity with a forward step. Realizing she's getting worked up again she steps back with another deep breath, calming again. "Just let me do this again and so help me, I'll never ask either of you for anything ever again." Kathryn promises.
Lucy lifts her hand, shaking her head. The arm in the sling makes a brave effort at the same, but flops down weakly afterwards. Her mouth is a thin line, her face white and stiff in barely masked distress. She says nothing, nothing at all. The frustration is evident through the resignation, and a very loud 'What-the-fuck-ever' in the silence.
"As I said, there'd be nothing I could do to stop you that wouldn't also hurt you," Andre repeats, adding quickly, "...and I wouldn't do that! But it's up to you, not us." He presses his lips tightly together, then adds, softer, "I don't want you to do something wrong because you're frustrated, because then you /will/ end up getting hurt."
Kathryn takes several more deep breaths, stepping away from Andre into the center of the alley. "I'm not frustrated. I'm okay. I just need one more shot. Once more." She sounds very sure, very convinced. She stops, closing her eyes, focusing her mind on that fateful Sunday morning. "Okay." She starts forward, her pace quickly shifting up to a near sprint before she disappears with another flash and a thump.
There are really only two things to do when Lucy cannot get a grip on the situation, and as alcohol is not available in copious amounts, she will have to settle for a cigarette. It takes several attempts and a string of multilingual swears to get the smoke out and place it on her lips; the lighter is a hopeless effort. With a snap the cigarette sparks and lights, and she stands there, shaking imperceptibly, smoking avidly. "This is so...beyond...bugger all, this is completely mad..."
Andre wrinkles his nose as Lucy lights up, shuffling his position so as to not be downwind of the smoke. Once he has readjusted, he looks intently at the pile of rubble and waits.
The pile of rubble however doesn't change. However, towards the end of the alley there's a crash amid the dumpsters and trash cans. Another cat yowls. Scrambling and banging follows before Kathryn returns at a half run, limping from where she hit her knee into the dumpster on her re-entry. Any cool she had left disappears as she realizes the building is still in it's original state. "No...no.../no/!" She wails as she comes to a stumbling halt.
An 'I told you so' is in order. But Lucy tactfully holds her tongue. If her smoking becomes ever so slightly more smug, she does not notice.
At the crashing sound, Andre starts limping his way toward the end of the alley, which results in his being in a position that Kathryn stumbles right past. Turning awkwardly with his cane as a pivot, he heads back to where Lucy stands and Kathryn comes to her halt. "It's still March 23rd 2007," he observes, as forlorn a statement of today's date as one has ever heard. "Maybe the 24th by now." He bites his lower lip and his fingers tap on the handle of his cane. "You ok now?"
Kathryn only seems to half-hear Andre. "Why? Why didn't it work? I did it all..." Standing at the edge of the rubble Kathryn drops down to a crouch. "What didn't I do...I know it worked before. I /know/ it...why didn't it /work/?" She half shouts, half whimpers, an odd unnerving combination.
"Because it wasn't going to work in the first place," Lucy says quietly, holding her stance a bit away from the two of them. She still holds back that 'I told you so', and a rather uncomfortable desire to run over and help Kathryn to her feet, hold her up--something. She does not. She remains very still. "Kathryn...please. Stop this."
"How did you know it wasn't?" Andre asks of Lucy, the question genuine rather than challenging. "I didn't know if the /fixing/ thing was going to work, but the actual jumping back? How did you know?" As repeats that question, he looks from Lucy to Kathryn, not exactly in a position to provide physical support himself. "I don't know why," he mumbles.
"It /was/ going to work!" Kathryn shoots back to Lucy, though she doesn't sound so sure anymore. In fact she sounds pretty shaken. "It was supposed to...I don't know why." She looks back down the alley, slowly scrambling back to her feet. "Maybe if I just..." She trails off, limping forward again.
Lucy taps her cigarette ash out, her overt calm fouled by a little trembling of her hands, her shoulders. "Because it doesn't matter how much you hope for it to work--you can't change time. This isn't bloody Star Trek or something."
Despite his own limited mobility, Andre sets to motion after Kathryn this time, taking as wide steps as he can manage, free hand extended. "Kathryn, you're limping!" he observes loudly. "You're getting hurt again. If you're going to get hurt trying, just...don't /hurt/ yourself!"
"Because I landed on the damned dumpster!" Kathryn scowls. Yet she makes no further effort to attempt to teleport again. Already she's feeling a little weak and shaky, her limits aren't very far due to lack of use or training. "I just...I just...I thought I could finally /do/ something! Fix things instead of just /talk/ about them! I thought I could finally do something /right/!" Pain and frustration seep into her words, fists clenching and unclenching over nearly healed burns. "I just..." She trails off, clenching her teeth hard before she starts to cry.
"Come on, then," Lucy says after a moment, taking a cautious step forward. "Let's get you home, Kathryn. Home and into bed, where you can sleep off this nonsense." Another step forward, the hand with the cigarette reaching forward companionably. The animosity and frustration is still heavy in the air, and her darting eyes are an indication of her own lingering hostility. Or at least uncertainty. Still, she reaches out.
Andre continues to approach Kathryn as well, steps becoming smaller and less even once he realizes there is no need for swiftness on his part. "Kath," he begins softly, "maybe you can still make things better some other way and some other time. But not like that and not tonight. That's...pretty clear." He sounds loath to speak this last sentence, and he shuts his eyes after he does. Lucy's suggestion is seconded with a nod. "You need to sleep it off now."
Kathryn continues to stare down the alley longingly, as though somehow the answer will come out of the darkness. She sniffles, the action suddenly seeming to bring her back to reality. Or at least some aspect of it. "It's not nonsense." She gives Lucy a long, pained look. Finally she nods slowly. "Andre...let's go home." She murmurs in his direction, turning away from the alley, head sinking down towards her chest even as she speaks.
Lucy drops her hand. Or rather, draws it back to her mouth in a long inhale of nicotine and tar. She makes no motion towards either of them except a brief lift of her eyebrows and a step to the side. It has been readily proven she is not welcome to interfere.
Andre trails Kathryn out of the alley, steps slow and irregular, more assisted by the cane than they were on the way in. As he slips out, though, the Californian raises his free hand in a departing salutation to Lucy, murmuring, "You get home safe too," before disappearing onto the wider street behind the foiled time traveler.Lucy comes to save the day! Meaning yell at Kathryn and Andre for trying to do the impossible. Lovely.
I told her. I told her it wouldn't work, and now she feels worse. She won't even speak me to because--I guess I could have been, I don't know, less brusque. Probably saying they were fucking nutters was out of line, but for God's sake they were! And Andre! How could he have...have just facilitated this? Like it was completely normal? Like Kathryn just time-hopped every sodding day?
God, when I think what could've happened--what could have gone wrong... I don't even want to think about it. I just want her to stop this nonsense. We've got enough shit to handle without one of us going completely barmy.
It's late in the Warren apartment when Lucy pulls out her phone and dials Kathryn's number. Then again, it's never too late for gossip. She is a dutiful matchmaker, anyway, and entirely too curious as to the rest of the evening following her departure--namely, what the hell happened between Remy and Kathryn. So, she dials, and waits.
Despite the hour Kathryn is still wide awake and fully dressed. She's sitting cross-legged on the couch staring at the TV, but not really watching the images playing across the screen. One hand plays nervously over Raylai's ears as she strokes the kitten who's actually willingly submitting to this attention. When the phone rings both jump before Kathryn reaches over, scrabbling for the phone. "Hello?" She asks cautiously.
"All right then, Kath?" Lucy says cheerily, flopping onto her bed on her end of the phone. Down to business. "So? How did it go?" she asks, all innuendos and sly grins.
Kathryn blinks, pulling herself upright again on the couch as she grabs for the remote, muting the TV. "Huh? Lucy? Hey!" She blinks again, orienting herself. "What? How'd what go?" She's a little dense tonight, too many things on her mind right now.
Lucy smiles into the phone. "You know. Your /walk home/?" The seemingly innocent activity is layered in suggestion. Were Kathryn there, she could almost have seen Lucy's eyebrows waggling. Suggestively!
"Oh!" Kathryn sits up straight, the proverbial light-bulb coming on. "Oh yeah! Sorry, just...distracted." She tosses the remote to the side, curling up against the corner of the couch. "Went good! We just walked home...chatted. It was good." She nods, even though Lucy can't see it.
"Distracted?" Lucy repeats, sitting up. "Something the matter?"
"No, no." Kathryn's quick to answer. "You know, just the same stuff that it's been all along. Hey, thanks for dragging me out the other night though, it was fun!" She switches the topic back to that subject.
Lucy eyes the phone. "Kath," she says seriously. "I'm happy to drag you out for fun, but you sound--odd. Really, is something wrong?"
Kathryn lets out a faint sigh, pausing before she answers. "No, no, I'm okay. Seriously. It's just been a long couple of days, ya know? Stuff starts wearing on you." She sounds a bit evasive as she gives the answer she hopes Lucy'll buy.
Lucy doesn't. She is very shrewd. "It certainly does," she says vaguely. "How about I come down, we can watch a movie or something? Jen's just gone to the shop and picked up some Oreos," she offers.
Normally Kathryn'd jump at an offer like this. Not tonight though. "Thanks. But I'm just...I'm pretty out of things tonight. Um, I think I might just go out for a walk, then head to bed." She replies, just as vague. It's not a /complete/ lie.
"A walk." Very suspicious. "I hate to pry, love, but you're awfully shifty tonight."
"Yeah, just a walk. You know, clear my head, work things out a bit. It helps." Kathryn draws herself up, a slightly defensive edge growing. "I'm not shifty, I'm just /tired/. "
"Work what out a bit?" Lucy asks, rising from the bed. "Kath, you aren't--this isn't about all that time traveling stuff, is it?"
Kathryn winces. Bad wording. "Lucy...I already told you I'm going to do this." She sighs.
From suspicious to worrisome in half a minute. Lucy gets up quickly, moving out of the bedroom. "And /I've/ told you it's dangerous. I thought you were just--I don't know, de-stressing!"
"I wasn't just saying that because it sounded good! I meant it!" Kathryn insists, standing up quickly. "I have to do this. Please do not make me go over this again. Please." Kathryn practically begs.
"What, /now/?" Lucy asks, voice rising. "You're not going now!"
"Lucy. Please." Kathryn shakes her head to herself.
"I'm coming down," she says firmly. Thankfully, a pair of flats are by the door, or she would not bother with them at all. "Stay there, I'm coming down."
"Lucy, no, don't do that. You don't need to do that." Kathryn's quick to insist. "I'm fine!"
"You're clearly not. Stay put!" she snaps into the phone before quickly shutting it off and rushing out the door. This is a problem. A very big Problem.
"No, no!" Kathryn insists to the dial tone. Pulling the phone away from her ear she glares at it. "Crap, crap, /crap/." She mutters at the phone. There's now a kink in her plans. A very big kink. Lucy calls Kathryn to gossip and gets more than she bargained for.
Kathryn rubs her hands together nervously as she steps into the alley, her previously determined footsteps slowing. Her steps and her heartbeat pound loud in her ears, so loud she's certain her companion must be able to hear it. It's late and dark, and Kathryn glances around slightly. Somewhere nearby a cat yowls and another answers with a hiss, making Kathryn jump. She shivers, looking up at Andre. There's still a smell of smoke lingering near the rubble, causing her stomach to knot up, tighter then it has been the whole walk down here. "Well..." She finally says, her voice barely above a whisper but ringing loudly in her own hearing.
Andre follows Kathryn slowly and stiffly, his steps almost a throwback to how they were much sooner after his hip was broken in this very alley. But this time, he's not really using his cane for physical support so much as emotional; he grips it tightly, for certain, but the angle at which it is resting compared to the flat of the ground is not one that would provide much support. The Californian's nose wrinkles at the smell of the stagnant smoke, and his head twitches as the cats yowl, but he ultimately makes it in behind Kathryn anyway, breathing heavily and then repeating, "Well..."
Kathryn takes a deep shaking breath, suddenly more nervous then she ever could have guessed she'd be at coming back here. Her stomach tightens and she twists her hands together a few more times, before pulling them apart and forcing them into her pockets, reassuring herself that her phone was still in place. "Sorry. This is just...it's weird." She admits, looking up to Andre. "Um. Okay." She glances back at the rubble. "I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna call the cops. I'm gonna do everything I can to keep everyone out." She repeats out loud what she's been telling herself in her head for hours. "Listen um...I don't know if.../I'll/ be coming back to /here/." She starts slowly, attention again on Andre. "So...I mean...after I go you don't have to stay around. If you don't want to. I just needed someone to come with me this far." Her voice lowers.
Andre pries one of his hands off of his cane, then reaches over to reassuringly and gently pat Kathryn on the upper arm. "You'll do fine. If you're that resolved to do it, it'll only help." He nods stiffly, then takes another long breath, shoulders rising and falling with the expansion and contraction of his lungs. "But I'm going to stay here. In case you do come back right here right now," he decides. And then, after a second or so he adds, "Also because I'd like to see the building suddenly reappear when you fix it!" This is followed by a very quiet, though anxious, laugh.
The corners of Kathryn's mouth pull upwards as she makes an amused sound in her throat, not quite a laugh, but a break in the tension. "You'll have to tell me what it looked like." She nods, then suddenly steps forward, pulling Andre into a tight hug. "Thank you. For...all of this." She murmurs into his shirt before reluctantly pulling away and facing back towards the rubble. "Okay." She breaths in. "Here goes nothing."
It's a strange sight Lucy runs into. Her legs are sore and her breath is raw from running all the way from Autumn Lights to the remains of the Sanctuary, following her best guess for where Kathryn was. She had found the woman's apartment empty and--well, now all this was about to happen. Not. Good. "/Kathryn!/" she shouts, sprinting forward, her slung-up arm smacking awkwardly into her side. "Kathryn--stop!"
"I should've brought a camera," Andre considers, shaking his head. "Too late for that, though." His eyes open wider at the hug, and he wraps the arm not occupied with cane-holding back around Kathryn, patting her back twice in the process. As she pulls away, he takes another slow long inhale...which comes rushing back out hard enough to whistle as Lucy sprints into the alley. Andre squints toward the running figure, but the accent identifies her faster than visuals do. "Lucy? What're you doing here?"
Kathryn startles violently at the sudden shout, spinning around, eyes wide. "Lucy? What? What are you doing here? I told you I was alright!" She insists, something between still startled, and irritated.
"What the /fuck/ do you think I'm doing here?" Lucy cries back, cheeks and nose red from running and breathing hard. Her breath comes no slower as she arrives in front of them, panting, livid, and practically sparking. "And--Andre! You aren't...you aren't /helping/ her, are you?" she asks, incredulity almost making it a gasp. "You aren't helping her in this--this madness!?"
Andre takes a few awkward steps backwards, relying on the cane more for support in this direction, then looking at Lucy with a furrowed brow. "She asked me if I'd just come out here with her," he explains tentatively, "so I guess that's helping, yes. Even though it's all I can do..."
"What? It's /not/ madness!" Kathryn takes several steps closing the distance between her and Lucy. "It's not madness, and I'm not crazy! Right Andre? Tell her I'm not crazy!" Kathryn spins to face Andre at this. "He's helping me because he believes me! Which is what I'd /hoped/ you'd do too!" She looks quickly back to Lucy. She's come too far to let this go without a fight.
Lucy's face pinks, outraged. "It is one thing to believe in someone, and quite another to let them go gallivanting off to save the fucking day!" she half-shouts, checking her voice with a quick, accusatory glance at Andre. "Mutants are /not/ superheroes, Kathryn. We have limits!"
"She described the morning of April 18th 1906 as perfectly as every historical book I've ever read about it," Andre hereby confesses to having read more than a couple, "but didn't know what it was." There is still surprise in his tone here, as if this is a new revelation. "I believe her for that." He bobs his head, worried expression tilting into a frown as Lucy sends visual accusations his way. "How does anyone know a limit until they've tested it? And I sure think we need superheroes if there are enough super/villains/ around /breaking/ things." On the penultimate word, he glances first at the rubble of the Sanctuary, then at his own leg.
"So what, we're all just supposed to look away and do nothing because 'it's not our place'? Screw that!" Kathryn shouts back. As Andre speaks she points towards him with a fast nod. "See? See, I am not making this up! I didn't know what I was seeing, but Andre did! That's gotta mean something! And how do you know it's not in my limits? Why is this so hard for you to believe, Lucy?"
"Did you plan it?" Lucy shoots back. "Did you /plan/ on going back there? It just /happened!/" She opens her mouth, claps it back shut, sighing quietly to herself. Her eyes drift, upwards and around the alley, perhaps looking for aid. Walls, unfortunately, are rather terrible helpers. "It doesn't matter what she /saw/, Andre. You don't know what could happen, if you just go back and fuck with things. There are /always/ repercussions, Kathryn. You may make things worse. Have you considered that? That you'll make things worse?" Her voice sinks on the last, a quiet repetition, a plea.
Andre's mouth opens as if to interject several times during Lucy's tirade, but he comes out with no phrases until shortly after she has finished. "It was already..." he begins very quietly, then cuts himself off, leaning forward against the support of his cane and looking at some indeterminate point between Kathryn and Lucy.
"Yes. I did plan it. And I'm going to do it as much as I can without messing with anything else." Kathryn's voice starts to come down again. "And I've thought about that. And I've realized...in this case...it can't /get/ worse. It doesn't get worse then...living in a haze and gulping Nyquil just so I can just collapse between the haze." She's dropped from shouting to pleading, looking between Lucy and Andre both. "I'm going to do this. You can't stop me."
Lucy opens her mouth slowly, licks her lips. "You could die," she says.
Andre rocks slightly in place, using his cane as a fulcrum. "If...the police call doesn't work and she's stuck in there..." He pauses briefly on this thought, frowning deeply. "...again, then it'll be just like before and everyone will get out again." The end of the phrase inflects upward, a questioning uncertainty rather than a matter-of-fact statement.
"But Kath in the coffee shop won't...die." Kathryn looks to Lucy. "It'll work. I've thought it out enough, it'll work. Andre's right. And either way...it's gotta be better then this." She nods, taking several steps back. "I'm not talking about it anymore. All I ever do is talk about stuff." Another step backwards. "No more." Her gaze flickers over both again, she smiles quickly, then with a golden flash and a thunk like something dropped on a hardwood floor Kathryn disappears.
Lucy says, "Kathryn--!" Lucy freezes, staring at the flash. Breath comes in hard gasps, her eyes darting everywhere as if Kathryn will appear randomly, shout 'April Fools' and prove this to just be a cruel joke. But Kathryn does not appear. "Kathryn...?!" Her chest feels tight--when did she start hyperventilating? Suddenly her hand is on the wall, steadying her. "/Kathryn!/"
Andre stiffens as Kathryn disappears, eyes latched on to the space of air that she formerly occupied. "I thought she was going to give us some /warning/ first!" he exclaims, tenor voice near the top of its range. "Oh jeez..." He grits his teeth, then looks back toward Lucy, following that train of thought quite literally by shuffling over to the wall. The wall against which his leg was smashed. Lovely. "/You/ ok?"
Another flash of golden light appears at the tail end of Andre's last comment, cutting Lucy off before she can answer. Kathryn reappears, looking in one piece, in fact completely unharmed or changed in any way. As soon as she again hits the ground she tries to run forward, but stops, confused. It's dark. And the building is still in ruins. Confusion and concern spread across her face. "Wait. Wait...this isn't /right/!"
"Kathryn?" Lucy says quietly, staring at her. "What--?" Her face firms abruptly, and in one swift motion, the hand against the wall launches forward and latches onto Kathryn's wrist. She does not explain why, but it's safe to assume it's not a gesture of relief. More likely to make sure Kathryn remains exactly where she is.
"B...wha?" Andre is eloquent when he is surprised. Biting down on his lower lip, he turns his head rapidly between facing the still-destroyed building and the recently-returned Kathryn. "Kath?" he questions, as if it could be anyone else, "Did you make it back at all? Are you ok now?"
"Wha...?" Kathryn jerks back trying to pull herself free from Lucy's grip. "Lemme..." She lets that thought trail, looking to Andre. "/No/! That's just it...I was supposed to be there /now/! It didn't work!" She pulls again against Lucy. "I think it's because I did it so quickly before! I wasn't focused! I need to focus on it this time, I've got to do it again!" She insists, all of her sentences running together into more like one long run-on.
A little shock, enough to distract but not to hurt, shoots from Lucy's hand to Kathryn's wrist. "Stop it," she demands harshly. "You tried, it didn't work. Now /stop it/."
"Maybe you're...too nervous to focus?" Andre suggests, himself nervous to voice the phrase. He is unaware of Lucy's use of her own powers. His, needless to say, are useless in this situation.
The shock is enough to startle Kathryn, and slow her words down, but not dissuade her from what she wants. Even though it was the hand held by Lucy that got shocked, she shakes her free hand suddenly. "Oww, dammit, no!" She barks back at Lucy. "No, no, I'm not! I'm fine! That one was just too fast." She turns to Andre, alternating now back to pleading. "I can /do/ this. I just need one more shot. Just once more! That's it...Andre, tell her!" She tries to jerk free from Lucy again.
"You sound like a fucking /junkie!/" Lucy snaps, pulling her hand back sharply. "Shit, Kathryn--it's not safe!"
"Not working the first time is just going to make you /more/ nervous about the second time!" Andre gestures with his free hand toward the rubble. "If you don't practice first, when you're calm. It's like that for performances, so...practice going somewhere /safe/?"
Kathryn jerks her hand back as Lucy does the same, rubbing at her wrist where she was shocked. "It is safe! I've been doing it since I was /14/ and I'm still here." She snaps back, crossing to stand with Andre between her and Lucy. "No. I'm fine." She insists between clenched teeth. "I'm fine." She closes her eyes, taking several deep breaths. "I just need a minute, then I'm going to try it again. I just everyone" One eye opens to stare hard at Lucy with a pointed look. "To just be quiet for a minute...let me regroup."
"Practice, he says," she says, staring incredulously at Andre. "Like it's a sodding /game/... I can't believe you! You're both out of your fucking heads!" Perhaps antagonizing is not the best method of convincing her friends of the insanity of the situation, but sensibility has never gotten on so well with stress. "I can't stop you," she states, finally and reluctantly. "Just--God, fuck." Whatever 'just' was, it is lost in a harried scraping of fingers through hair.
Andre winces as Lucy assesses his insanity with profanity, looking briefly at his feet before realizing, "If I wanted to stop it, I wouldn't be able to, and that said, I think has the potential for great good if it works, so why not support it?"
Kathryn winces at Lucy's words, but flashes Andre a grateful smile, partially hidden in the near darkness of the alley. "This isn't a game! And I swear to you I'm not crazy!" She reasserts her sanity with a forward step. Realizing she's getting worked up again she steps back with another deep breath, calming again. "Just let me do this again and so help me, I'll never ask either of you for anything ever again." Kathryn promises.
Lucy lifts her hand, shaking her head. The arm in the sling makes a brave effort at the same, but flops down weakly afterwards. Her mouth is a thin line, her face white and stiff in barely masked distress. She says nothing, nothing at all. The frustration is evident through the resignation, and a very loud 'What-the-fuck-ever' in the silence.
"As I said, there'd be nothing I could do to stop you that wouldn't also hurt you," Andre repeats, adding quickly, "...and I wouldn't do that! But it's up to you, not us." He presses his lips tightly together, then adds, softer, "I don't want you to do something wrong because you're frustrated, because then you /will/ end up getting hurt."
Kathryn takes several more deep breaths, stepping away from Andre into the center of the alley. "I'm not frustrated. I'm okay. I just need one more shot. Once more." She sounds very sure, very convinced. She stops, closing her eyes, focusing her mind on that fateful Sunday morning. "Okay." She starts forward, her pace quickly shifting up to a near sprint before she disappears with another flash and a thump.
There are really only two things to do when Lucy cannot get a grip on the situation, and as alcohol is not available in copious amounts, she will have to settle for a cigarette. It takes several attempts and a string of multilingual swears to get the smoke out and place it on her lips; the lighter is a hopeless effort. With a snap the cigarette sparks and lights, and she stands there, shaking imperceptibly, smoking avidly. "This is so...beyond...bugger all, this is completely mad..."
Andre wrinkles his nose as Lucy lights up, shuffling his position so as to not be downwind of the smoke. Once he has readjusted, he looks intently at the pile of rubble and waits.
The pile of rubble however doesn't change. However, towards the end of the alley there's a crash amid the dumpsters and trash cans. Another cat yowls. Scrambling and banging follows before Kathryn returns at a half run, limping from where she hit her knee into the dumpster on her re-entry. Any cool she had left disappears as she realizes the building is still in it's original state. "No...no.../no/!" She wails as she comes to a stumbling halt.
An 'I told you so' is in order. But Lucy tactfully holds her tongue. If her smoking becomes ever so slightly more smug, she does not notice.
At the crashing sound, Andre starts limping his way toward the end of the alley, which results in his being in a position that Kathryn stumbles right past. Turning awkwardly with his cane as a pivot, he heads back to where Lucy stands and Kathryn comes to her halt. "It's still March 23rd 2007," he observes, as forlorn a statement of today's date as one has ever heard. "Maybe the 24th by now." He bites his lower lip and his fingers tap on the handle of his cane. "You ok now?"
Kathryn only seems to half-hear Andre. "Why? Why didn't it work? I did it all..." Standing at the edge of the rubble Kathryn drops down to a crouch. "What didn't I do...I know it worked before. I /know/ it...why didn't it /work/?" She half shouts, half whimpers, an odd unnerving combination.
"Because it wasn't going to work in the first place," Lucy says quietly, holding her stance a bit away from the two of them. She still holds back that 'I told you so', and a rather uncomfortable desire to run over and help Kathryn to her feet, hold her up--something. She does not. She remains very still. "Kathryn...please. Stop this."
"How did you know it wasn't?" Andre asks of Lucy, the question genuine rather than challenging. "I didn't know if the /fixing/ thing was going to work, but the actual jumping back? How did you know?" As repeats that question, he looks from Lucy to Kathryn, not exactly in a position to provide physical support himself. "I don't know why," he mumbles.
"It /was/ going to work!" Kathryn shoots back to Lucy, though she doesn't sound so sure anymore. In fact she sounds pretty shaken. "It was supposed to...I don't know why." She looks back down the alley, slowly scrambling back to her feet. "Maybe if I just..." She trails off, limping forward again.
Lucy taps her cigarette ash out, her overt calm fouled by a little trembling of her hands, her shoulders. "Because it doesn't matter how much you hope for it to work--you can't change time. This isn't bloody Star Trek or something."
Despite his own limited mobility, Andre sets to motion after Kathryn this time, taking as wide steps as he can manage, free hand extended. "Kathryn, you're limping!" he observes loudly. "You're getting hurt again. If you're going to get hurt trying, just...don't /hurt/ yourself!"
"Because I landed on the damned dumpster!" Kathryn scowls. Yet she makes no further effort to attempt to teleport again. Already she's feeling a little weak and shaky, her limits aren't very far due to lack of use or training. "I just...I just...I thought I could finally /do/ something! Fix things instead of just /talk/ about them! I thought I could finally do something /right/!" Pain and frustration seep into her words, fists clenching and unclenching over nearly healed burns. "I just..." She trails off, clenching her teeth hard before she starts to cry.
"Come on, then," Lucy says after a moment, taking a cautious step forward. "Let's get you home, Kathryn. Home and into bed, where you can sleep off this nonsense." Another step forward, the hand with the cigarette reaching forward companionably. The animosity and frustration is still heavy in the air, and her darting eyes are an indication of her own lingering hostility. Or at least uncertainty. Still, she reaches out.
Andre continues to approach Kathryn as well, steps becoming smaller and less even once he realizes there is no need for swiftness on his part. "Kath," he begins softly, "maybe you can still make things better some other way and some other time. But not like that and not tonight. That's...pretty clear." He sounds loath to speak this last sentence, and he shuts his eyes after he does. Lucy's suggestion is seconded with a nod. "You need to sleep it off now."
Kathryn continues to stare down the alley longingly, as though somehow the answer will come out of the darkness. She sniffles, the action suddenly seeming to bring her back to reality. Or at least some aspect of it. "It's not nonsense." She gives Lucy a long, pained look. Finally she nods slowly. "Andre...let's go home." She murmurs in his direction, turning away from the alley, head sinking down towards her chest even as she speaks.
Lucy drops her hand. Or rather, draws it back to her mouth in a long inhale of nicotine and tar. She makes no motion towards either of them except a brief lift of her eyebrows and a step to the side. It has been readily proven she is not welcome to interfere.
Andre trails Kathryn out of the alley, steps slow and irregular, more assisted by the cane than they were on the way in. As he slips out, though, the Californian raises his free hand in a departing salutation to Lucy, murmuring, "You get home safe too," before disappearing onto the wider street behind the foiled time traveler.Lucy comes to save the day! Meaning yell at Kathryn and Andre for trying to do the impossible. Lovely.