(no subject)

[sunnydalealum]

It's a plain room, more like a hostel room than a cell, except the only furniture is a bed – the chest of drawers and the night table have been moved out. No window. There's a tiny bathroom with a toilet and a sink but no shower; the bathroom door's been taken off its hinges and out of the room.

There are two Slayers on guard outside.

(There's also, though nobody in or near the room has any reason to know it, a mystic surveillance system set up. This conversation will not be private.)

Comments

[nomorekaraoke]

Maybe it isn't unheard of, to have a demon walking the halls of the Watchers' Council, but it's certainly a rare sight - and judging by the dozens of eyes glaring at the back of his neck, Lorne's presence here is unwanted and, if not directly unwelcome, looked upon with a healthy dose of suspicion.

He's fine with that. He's here because he wants to be, because one of his friends needs him. After giving one of the Slayer guards proper identification, he's let into the makeshift cell.

Red eyes immediately scanning the room for Beth.

[sunnydalealum]

She's not hard to find: sitting on the bed with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them, looking up as the door opens.

"You've got twenty minutes," says one of the guards flatly, and closes the door behind him. The heavy clunk of the lock is clearly audible.

[nomorekaraoke]

"Emma, darling," he murmurs softly, immediately coming to her side and sitting down right there on the bed. "I got here as fast as I could."

His arm is in a sling, his face a bit less green and more grey than normal, but otherwise he seems fine. He is fine. He's peachy.

[sunnydalealum]

"That's not my name." Beth's voice is barely audible. "You know that's not my name."

[nomorekaraoke]

"I know." He gives her a lopsided little moue in return, not a smile, not a frowny-face. "I know, sweetheart."

[sunnydalealum]

She's drawn in on herself, crumpled like a dry leaf.

[nomorekaraoke]

And he doesn't know what to say, hasn't the slightest little clue. He thinks back to the night she ran, near crying into her cell phone, when he took a shot in the dark and read her. Not enough to see anything, but just enough to get a sense of her, something to go by and recognize and hone in on like his father taught him once upon a long time ago.

If a cow leaves the farm, you'd better find it, son. You know you can do it.


Cows. Cattle. Livestock. Slaves.

He shivers in the silence, draping his coat and his good arm over Emma's thin little shoulders. "Look at me, Emma. Beth. I don't care what your name is, okay?"

[sunnydalealum]

Dully obedient, she looks up, shaking a straggle of hair out of her eyes.

[nomorekaraoke]

"Okay?"

A beat, looking down into her eyes. "You'll get through this. I know you will."

[sunnydalealum]

"They want to kill me."

Even as faint as her voice is, he can hear it shake.

[nomorekaraoke]

"Who do, munchkin?"

[sunnydalealum]

For just a moment, her face takes on an expression other than fear or blank despair: scornful disbelief. You can't be serious, that look says. Don't insult my intelligence.

[nomorekaraoke]

He returns the look - thanks to years of experience with asking stupid questions, he doesn't take offense and hopes he can repair any damage he's done - and clarifies. "The world, the Council, all Slayers in existence, the three that attacked us, Wolfram & Hart-though-I-can't-think-of-why? Contrary to popular belief, demons don't generally read minds.

"And though I am wise beyond my years, not even I ever had that particular talent."

Which is to say, mind reading is overrated. Way, way overrated.

[sunnydalealum]

She deflates a little as he rattles off the options.

"The Council," she says finally, drearily. "Maybe Wolfram & Hart too, I don't know."

[nomorekaraoke]

In hindsight, maybe the scorn was better than this silent, shivery resignation.

"Because of what you did? I was under the impression you worked for Wolf, Ram and Hart, although briefly."

[sunnydalealum]

"Briefly. Yeah."

A twitch of the mouth that can't properly be called a smile, or anything like one.

"A lot more briefly than they wanted, I think. I ran away. After the, the battle, last year."

[nomorekaraoke]

"If they'd wanted to find you, they would have by now." He knows that isn't at all reassuring, but it's the best he can do given the circumstances.

"They would've found me by now, too."

[sunnydalealum]

"That's what I figured." Beth rests her chin on her upraised knees, looking into the middle distance.

"It's not like I did anything terrible to them when I went AWOL. I just ran."

[nomorekaraoke]

Lorne ducks his head slightly, taking a moment of quiet for himself. Could be argued he didn't kill a W&H employee, but...he's one of the people who brought the LA part of the big momma of a house down.

"Yeah. I'm not gonna say running never killed anyone, but you know. Running's running. It's instinct. You go where the big bad can't hurt you anymore."

[sunnydalealum]

"Doesn't matter anyway. The Council's got better reason to want me dead than Wolfram & Hart ever did."

Her voice is low, and almost strengthless.

[nomorekaraoke]

"You're not telling me you're responsible for all of it? But...some crucial part of the big bang?"

He's asking because he wants to know. He doesn't need to, but he'd like to. To be trusted with it.

[sunnydalealum]

"The ..." She raises her head, looking a little confused. "Big bang?"

[nomorekaraoke]

"Wolfram & Hart. Something not entirely unlike a lifetime ago. Big showdown between their zhirelin and another unknown faction. Word on the street says it was one big cat fight of the Slaying kind."

It's his job to know everything about everyone ever. Or rather, it's his job to find out as much as he can, and let people believe he knows it all, has seen it all.

He remembers the first time they met, when he started piecing things together. Doesn't feel like he's any closer to an answer now.

[sunnydalealum]

He can see the recognition in her eyes before she puts her forehead down against her knees.

Muffled: "Yeah. That was it."

[nomorekaraoke]

"Going up against something that much bigger than you has a tendency of making you feel very, very small. Insubstantial, like nothing you do will matter..."

He tilts his head to the side and slightly forward. "But it does. Everything matters. You just gotta back up a few steps to see the whole picture."