ellectrical | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Dreamless sleep, or at least not remembering the dreams after, is one unknown benefit of losing too many memories.

It hadn't taken her that long to actually lie across the bed, rest the left side of her head into the pillow, and close her eyes. X being there had helped, but there was little more her body could do, and she could at least be moderately certain she wouldn't set the unmoved bed sheets on fire.

It's several hours, and maybe a couple of IV changes before Elle, having been entirely still her sleep, shifts slightly – she rolls onto her back, and then back to her left side.

After another moment, her eyes open.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's the slight shift in Elle's breathing that snags X's attention, and she turns from her intent awareness of the infirmary door to look at the newly-awake woman.

"You did not dream?"

X has heard that this happens sometimes. When people are not okay.

It is not something she is very familiar with.

"I don't dream," Elle answers.

She's still leaning against the pillow when she says it, but after a moment, decides to sit up. It takes a sharp pang through her palms to remind her she'll have to push herself up with her legs, which are now feeling a lot less like damp cardboard. Elle shoves herself up into a sitting position, and lays her hands palms-up in her lap.

She doesn't look at them very long before her attention turns back to X.

"Did you sleep?"

"No," X says, shaking her head very slightly.

"I will do that later."

Beat.

"I do not need much."

It doesn't surprise her. Elle looks back down to her hands.

X's gaze suddenly feels heavy. She'd helped her, stayed this whole time -

And Elle looks up, around the room, maybe for just one more delay before she has to explain it.

Her eyes fall on another figure in the infirmary. She's startled for a moment, but not long enough for it to show - it's obvious he won't be listening to them.

Dully, "Why is he here?"

X flicks a glance toward said occupant, then looks back at Elle.

"I stabbed him."

It is a very straightforward answer.

"He shot people. Here."

"Oh."

She does not sound especially troubled by this.

Elle glances around again.

"Why aren't they here?"

"They left. Through the stables. I do not know how."

X offers a slight, one-shouldered shrug.

"I had to track him. Into the forest."

Elle looks back to him.

"And then you stabbed him?"

She doesn't sound surprised, exactly, but... even with Security, it didn't seem like something X did in here if she could help it.

It's not something Elle always follows.

"He shot me," X says, matter-of-factly.

"Other people would have died. It was easier to incapacitate him."

Beat.

"Maybe this time he will remember not to be stupid."

X does not believe it.

Edited 2009-10-18 07:25 (UTC)

It doesn't make Elle look back to X, though her fingers begin to curl slightly against her palms before she seems to remember, once again, that she shouldn't do that.

"When you were coming after him?"

"Yes," X says.

"He had not seen me work before."

Beat.

"It is easier if they know to be afraid."

Elle does look back to X now.

"He didn't know what you could do?"

X had never seemed to keep it a secret. That is surprise.

"I do not know if he believed it."

Sometimes people do not, even in Milliways.

It is strange.

"He's a jackass."

Since X has said it. But Elle's voice, if firm, is a little quiet. She's looking at her hands again.

"You're - okay?"

X tilts her head fractionally, studying Elle.

"Yes."

Beat.

"The damage was not very significant."

It was, after all, only one gun.

"Bullet wounds do not take long to heal."

For X.

Elle doesn't say this. Though she had meant the question, she'd also known the likely answer - and it was mostly a last option.

She looks back up to meet X's eyes.

"Do you - want me to tell?"

"I -- "

X hesitates, gaze flicking down and to the side before she looks back up at Elle.

"Yes."

Beat.

"Please."

It is important for her to understand.

Because it is Elle.

She doesn't say anything. At first.

But very carefully, she reaches up to her throat, and hooks one finger around the necklace that's still there, tucked beneath the neckline of her blouse. She tugs it out - the charm swings a little at the end, and the chain glints gold under the infirmary lights.

Elle knows X will remember that it wasn't gold when she last saw it.

X frowns, gaze flicking from the chain, to Elle's face, and back again.

And after a few moments of silence.

"I do not understand. Your father, he -- "

But why would Elle's father turn --

X goes very still.

"Sylar?"

Elle releases the chain again, letting it fall back against her chest.

"He was dead when I got there."

She was too late. Again. Elle's voice is low, but stays steady.

"I found him, and then I - had to find Sylar."

"I am sorry," X says, shoulders hunching very slightly.

There are things she remembers very well.

Some of them hurt.

"That he -- "

She cuts herself off, because there are some things X does not know how to say. Even when she wants to.

"He ran? Sylar."

The truth is, the only reality that's really sunk into Elle is that whatever happens, she's not going home.

At least, not to the way things were.

So when X's shoulders move, Elle glances away, almost embarrassed at making X -

Well. Her hand moves again but stops short of actually reaching out to X, instead staying still at the edge of the bed.

Then, she shakes her head. "There're - a lot of people like me. In there. I thought he'd - try to find them."

Beat. "And I'm - supposed to have someone. Else."

X's gaze follows the movement of Elle's hand, the aborted gesture that leaves her fingers near the edge of the bed.

She is not sure about acceptable reactions, not completely, but --

X shifts her own position until one of her hands can comfortably rest on the bed next to Elle's, close enough to touch.

In case.

Then --

"He did not try to get to them? The others."

Beat.

"They were not backup?"

And Elle moves her hand in return, just enough for their fingers to touch.

"Most of them - they're like Sylar."

Or herself. She's not sure how else to explain it.

"And we - kept them there, because they did things - killed people or whatever. With their abilities."

She glances down, briefly, before, "But - one of them was Bennet."

"Oh."

X absorbs that, eyes narrowing slightly as she runs through the available data.

Her hand stays right next to Elle's.

"He had abilities? Bennet."

Considering Sylar, the past tense would seem to make sense.

Though X does seem surprised at the thought that Bennet has abilities like theirs.

Just a little.