(no subject)

[girlwithout]

[oom: I know what happens now.
You want to go. You want to leave him alone. By himself. You see that he still needs you, but you don't care. You'll try to leave.
You always try to leave.
He'll have no choice but to stop you. And then... something terrible. And then you're gone, and he's alone. No matter what he does, Sophie, your pop is all alone all over again.
When will you understand, Sophie?
When will you see how deeply you hurt him?
warnings for attempted murder, a serial killer, corpses, and endangerment of a minor.]

Of course Milliways is here for her when she doesn't need it anymore. When she could have used an escape, a door out, nothing, but now. Now that there's no point.

There's a little pile of clothes waiting for her on the Bar when she steps up to it. Clean jeans, a plain blue shirt. Instead of going to her room for a shower or even the bathroom to change, she gathers them up in her arms and hugs them to her chest while she heads, mechanically, for one of the empty seats by the fire.

For now, she just stays there with her knees pulled up to her chest, apparently unaware that she's still in partial uniform and smells like something, well. Dead.

Comments

[athelstanthescribe]

It's enough to distract Athelstan from his own fear, though the book is still clutched tight in his arms as he crouches by her.

"...hello."

[girlwithout]

"Uh?"

Her focus on him comes slow, like coming out of a nap. "Huh?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"You don't look well, child", he says gently. "Tell me what you need?"

[girlwithout]

"I'm okay."

She is so not anywhere near okay that even claiming it should be laughable, but she's not really sure what to say.

[athelstanthescribe]

"...no, I don't think you are." He doesn't move, neither closer nor away. "Is there anyone you'd like to see?"

[girlwithout]

Steve, she thinks. My brother. My grandparents.

Her eyes blur over with tears for a second. "I don't know."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Something warm to drink, then." He signals to the nearest rat. "The rest can come later."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen knows that smell. God help her, she knows that smell.

( I lost count. )

It takes her a moment to find the source, even with Dogmeat's help, and when she does she coughs quietly, because that is not an expression you see on someone that it's wise to surprise.

[girlwithout]

It takes Rikki a second to realize someone's coughing to get her attention, and even then she mostly focuses on the dog at first before realizing it's Ellen.

"...Hey."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Bad day?" Ellen says, because there are not a lot of good ways to begin a conversation when that smell is hanging over one of the participants.

Except for maybe, "This is Dogmeat. Want him to sit with you?", because Ellen's found that the dog's a lot better at some things than she is.

[girlwithout]

Rikki blinks, takes a little too longer to answer. "I... yeah. Yeah." She's not even sure what she's agreeing to, not really, but she holds a hand out for the dog to sniff.

(Under any other circumstances, she might ask about the name.

Any other.)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The odd-eyed heeler pads over amiably and snuffles at Rikki's hand, then pushes his head against it. Perhaps he can get scritches out of this. Or food, but then he tends to think perhaps he can get food out of any situation.

Ellen's just gonna let him do his thing, at least for the moment.

[girlwithout]

After a moment, Rikki slips out of the seat and sits down on the floor with Dogmeat, looping an arm around him so she can scratch his side.

[balancingminds]

Charles had been reading the paper when she entered and waited to see where she would go and what she was doing.

When she sat down, he set his paper aside and said quietly, "Rikki?"

[girlwithout]

(Something flickers in her thoughts. Another girl, her age and very much not alive. Everything else is dull, confused, like speaking underwater.)

She shifts a little, pulling her knees down and crossing her legs, apparently still not realizing she still has a change of clothes on her lap. "Professor Xavier?"

[balancingminds]

Inwardly he shudders at her vision but he keeps his face still,

"I'm here, Rikki, you're safe. Focus on me, be here."

[girlwithout]

("I'm staying right here. With you... Pop.")

"I'm here," she repeats obediently, by rote more than the spirit of the thing.

[balancingminds]

Charles takes a drink, that wasn't the best phrase and reaches his hand out to her,

"Please look at me, Rikki. You're in Milliways."

[girlwithout]

"I know," she says, with just a touch of that teenager exasperation. "I know where I am."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve remembers her, the girl from the lake party. And he can't pass someone by when they're suffering, even if he doesn't know their name.

He hunkers down beside the girl and says, "Hey, there. I'm Steve. We talked a little bit a few months ago."

He pauses and lightly touches her arm. "Will you let me help you?"

[girlwithout]

Steve.

Whatever he said is lost to the noise in her own head, but once she realizes it's him, her face clears a little. As she looks at him, some of the distance falls away from her eyes.

(She wants him to be Steve, her Steve. She wants him to be Steve so bad.)

"Steve?" she says, and it's not like you'd say the name of a stranger you met once at a picnic. It's the way you say the name of someone you thought you were never going to see again.

And then all of the sudden, she's launched herself into a hug, holding onto him like he's the only thing in the universe that makes sense.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve is startled by the ferocity of her hug, but he wraps his arms around her anyway. He strokes her back and kisses her hair.

"Hey, hey," he whispers. "It'll be okay."

[girlwithout]

Later, she's going to be so mortified.

For now, though, Steve is here, she can stand down and let him figure things out. They'll find a way to bring her home, and she's not going to be on her own all the time anymore.

If she's crying now, it's from relief.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve whispers, stroking her hair, "Sweetheart, tell me your name, okay? I need something to call you."

[girlwithout]

That's not... right.

The question is like a bucket of cold water washing away a nice dream. Rikki freezes for a moment before moving away slowly, reluctantly, not quite ready to wake up.

"What?"