milliways_bar | (no subject)

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bonnie murdock

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[upstairs: Bonnie discovers traces of her AU self in her room]

Bonnie makes her way down the stairs before announcing to the bar in general:

"If the person who's been messin' with my room wants to come and own up, now would be the time, because it wasn't funny."

She heads over to the bar and is presented with a macchiato coffee with a leaf drawn in the foam. She makes a mollified noise of approval at the decorative attempt.

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Father Harman is sitting by the fire, noting down ideas for tomorrow's sermon.

Bonnie brings her coffee over and sits down.

"Hey Pearse."

"Hello, Bonnie," Father Harman says. "What mess was there in your room?"

"Someone left some stuff in there. It kinda freaked me out." Bonnie says.

She's not sure she's ready to tell him about the AA chip. But she digs in her pocket and pulls out the photo. "Don't suppose you recognise this?"

Father Harman takes it, and looks at it.

"... her name is Alice?" he blurts out.

Beat.

No. That's not possible.

"Which Alice?" she asks slowly.

"... your Alice?" Father Harman says, in the same doubtful and spontaneous tone of voice.

There is a long pause.

"My Alice died much younger than this." Bonnie says eventually. "Just a baby."

"Then why do I feel I remember her?" Father Harman says, slowly. "She was mute, but used sign language quite well, and loved to run in circles."

Bonnie blinks at him, then looks back at the picture.

"Was she in an institution?" she asks. "Where did you see her?"

"... here, with you?"

"Pearse, Alice died over twenty five years ago." Bonnie says.

"You were younger," Father Harman says. "And I was -- a lawyer?"

"...Are you okay?"

"I think I remember..." Father Harman says, shuddering.

"You ain't makin' any sense." Bonnie says. "When did another me come in?"

"And another me," Father Harman says. "That worked for the vampires in my world!"

Beat.

"he other week, or so."

"Huh. Must have been when I was gettin' my ass kicked."

"How did you get 'your ass kicked', as you so eloquently put it?"

"Some of John's dealers ran me off the road, stole my bike after I crashed." Bonnie says.

"Did you manage to go to the police, or would that have been disadvantageous under the circumstances?" Father Harman asks.

"I got straight in here." Bonnie says.

"And haven't gone back since then?"

"Not yet. I was hopin' fer things to heal a bit so I might get my bike back."

"By yourself," Harman says. "From a wild horde of drug dealers?"

"Clearly that's why I came in here. There's only three of them."

"Only," Father Harman echoes, incredulous. "How are you going to deal with them?"

"I don't know yet." Bonnie admits.

"Can you tell me more about Alice? How did she and the other me come to be here?"

"Through the door," Father Harman says. "Which apparently brought a number of other people the other week."

"Was she happy?"

"As far as I remember, they both liked their life," Farther Harman says. "Something of a dark cloud on the horizon, not really expecting for Alice to live very long -- but she was happy with her life as it was."

Bonnie nods.

She takes the picture back and has a look.

"She looks happy." she says softly.

"In the moments I knew her, she was," Pearse says, gently.

Bonnnie sighs slightly.

"So this must belong to the other Bonnie too then." she says, pulling out the AA chip.

Long silence.

"Yes," Father Harman says. "You ordered juice for both of you."

Bonnie stares at the chip.

Right now she has the two inconveniently conflicting emotions of 1. really wanting a stiff drink and 2. being absolutely certain that she does not have a drink 'problem' so much as a minor medical setback.

She sips the macchiato. It's not much substitute.

"I guess with a little disabled kid she'd have ter give up drinkin."

"She did Roller Derby as well, and took the kid along, who loved it," Pearse says. "It wasn't all ascetic renunciation."

"What's roller derby?" Bonnie asks, not knowing what the other part means either.

"A sport where people go round and round in circles on an indoor rink and try to push each other out of he way," Father Harman says. "Apparently, it's a lot of fun."

"Sounds like it." Bonnie says. "She were a fair bit younger than me by the sounds of it."

"Yes, she was," Father Harman says. "I suppose she had Alice at the same age you did."

"I was twenty, so I guess she'd be about twenty four?"

"That would be just about right," Father Harman nods.

"Well I got a lot to think about." Bonnie says quietly.

"You do," Father Harman says. "If you want to know more, I'd be ready to be hypnotised."

"You think that'd help?"

"For me to remember?" Pearse says. "Yes."

"It's not gonna bring back my daughter." Bonnie says.

She swallows hard, her throat suddenly feeling tight. "Thanks Pearse, I'll see you later."

"Yes," Father Harman says. "I'm at your disposal. Good-bye, Bonnie!"

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