damned_institute | Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

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Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

Somehow, after their talk in the chapel, Elaine felt simultaneously more accepting of and more irritated by her future husband. On the one hand, seven years had clearly been good to him. He seemed more sincere and thoughtful than he had been before his disappearance, and he had a more mature (dare she say, handsome?) look to him. On the other hand, there were clearly some things that made even time throw up its hands in vain and say, "To hell with this!" Guybrush was still inexorably prone to disastrous accidents if the story about the Pox of LeChuck was anything to go by, and he was so obviously keeping something important from her that any passing dolt in the Institute would have been able to tell. In the end, that eternal underlying sweetness of his that won out, keeping her from punching him again, at least. That was only by a hairs width, though. Her snugglecakes was going to have to stay on his best behaviour if he knew what was good for him.

She left the Mighty Pirate™ alone for the time being when the announcement of the next shift went off. He would want some time to catch up with Morgan next, presumably. As much as the woman's attitude bothered her, she was a friend of Guybrush's, as she had claimed. Elaine could be strict, but she wasn't the kind of shrewish future wife/past fiancé who would keep her man from seeing his friends. Besides, she needed some more time to catch up on the goings-on of the Institute. Patients filled the building to the brim, now, it seemed; there would be a lot to investigate.

After a few quick trips back and forth to the bulletin and a few new leads to follow up on, the governor gave in to her nurse's persistent nagging and headed to the cafeteria for brunch. After the relatively light fare of the day before, Elaine took advantage of the Institute's admittedly scrumptious offerings and loaded up a full, balanced brunchfast of eggs, sausage links, waffles, and vegetable soup. As expected, the selection of drinks did not offer either root beer or grog. Grog she could live without, at least, she thought while making a face. Eugh. For now, she settled for a tall glass of water.

Elaine settled into a seat in the cafeteria and tucked into her meal. Her eyes didn't stay on her food, though, instead gazing around restlessly; she hadn't seen LeChuck so far this morning, and god forbid he wanted to invite himself to brunch with her if he chose now to show up. A certain horribly unpleasant dinner on Mêlée Island came to mind. She was prepared to either move at the first sign of the dread pirate or signal a random stranger to sit with her before he could.

[For Dean]

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At the sound of someone sitting on the other side of the table, Bella looked up and smiled at Claire, relieved to see her looking at least okay. "Hey, Claire-"

However, it was then that the blonde spoke, and instantly her smile faded and was replaced with a concerned frown. There was something off about her tone ... perhaps she was still tired? Either way, Bella was worried about her new roommate/friend, and she wanted to know what was wrong.

"I'm okay, to be expected. Nothing I can't handle, really," taking another sip of her juice, Bella looked over the edge of the cup and towards Claire, unable to keep her thoughts to herself anymore. "Are ... you okay? I mean, I'm not saying that I can read minds or anything," like Edward could, "Or feel other people's feelings," like Jasper, "But ... call it roommate intuition. ... And your voice kind of gave it away."

Great. Even Bella could tell that she was an emotional wreck. As much as Claire wanted to bury her face in her hands and scream with frustration and cry because she just wasn't equipped to handle this right now, she just made her expression more impassive instead. Better to bottle it up. Even if she was running out of room in the bottle, she needed to keep it together. For everyone's benefit.

"No, I'm okay, I just -- I ran into my uncle earlier …" She let a conflicted frown slip by, then quickly shook her head. "It's like you said last night, you know, it's … hard to be happy to see someone you know here. Even if you're glad to have something normal, it's still the whole problem of them being stuck here, too." It took her a moment of warring with herself while she hacked off a piece of her waffles and took a bite to decide that if she was going to try to protect Bella, she'd need to make sure she knew to stay far away from Sylar. But, what was the best way to go about that without hitting the panic button on the whole thing?

"I actually heard that someone else I know is here, but I haven't seen him yet." It left a bad taste in her mouth, referring to Sylar as someone else she knew, but she had to let it slide. She had to act normal. Casual. "Maybe you've talked to him -- his name's Sylar. Weird, I know." She rolled her eyes a little, trying to make it look like she was completely calm about this whole thing when inside she was still trying not to let her glass case of emotions shatter and spill everywhere.

The ease with which she was lying was disturbing her, though. Even if it wasn't technically a lie, it was obvious that she'd picked up some talent at it from her dad, and it hurt her to realize that. She was doing exactly what she hated him for doing -- and without a second thought.

"Your uncle?" Bella asked, surprised and relieved at the same time. That meant that Claire had someone who could protect her and keep her safe. It was always better when someone you knew was by your side. "Well, I'm at least happy that you have someone here, now."

... However, at the second comment, the teenager blinked, frowning. "Sylar? No, I can't say I have ... but then again, some people don't even give their real names. That was what happened with my old roommate, before you came. She told me she really was the patient that the nurses were calling her, and that all she wanted was to just be healthy and be released. It was ... offputting, to say the least."

She still wondered about that girl. But perhaps it was better not to.

"What does he look like? I can look out for him for you, maybe," she told Claire with a smile. If she was looking for the man, she could at least help her look for him.

Of course, if she knew the truth about this ... Sylar, she would do the opposite of what she was going to do in reality.

She forced a smile and just nodded at what Bella said about Peter. It was hard to be happy to have him there, even if it was nice to have someone to lean on. For one, it would make things harder to have him there trying to protect her all the time. Hopefully he'd be too busy with his paramedic thing to care too much -- that had worked out pretty well for her outside of the institute's walls, him being too wrapped up in his own problems to care much for hers. But, this was a compacted space and her problems were going to be the same as his problems.

Still, it was easier to dismiss the topic than it was to discuss the pros and cons with Bella.

"You're right, he's probably not giving out his real name. That's actually … pretty smart." She hated to admit that. No, better still, it physically pained her to admit it. Not only was she giving a point to the liars of the world, but she was acknowledging that she actually felt she knew Sylar enough to make that claim. On top of that, she was giving credit to him. But, Bella couldn't be allowed to see how frustrated that made her, so she just shrugged a little. "I guess I didn't really think of that."

When Bella jumped to helping her look for him, though, Claire accidentally slammed her fork down on her plate.

"No!" She shouted quickly. Quieting, she cleared her throat, giving a very fake laugh and ducking her head, humiliated. "I mean -- No, you don't have to do that. It's … I've got it under control. He doesn't really react well to people he doesn't know well, and I don't want you to have to get in the middle of it." Mostly true, again. "I was just thinking maybe if you'd seen him I could know for sure that he's around, but that's fine. I'm sure I'll run into him eventually."

That thought made her want to go skydiving out the big bay window of the sun room, but she remained firmly planted in her seat. It was the first time she'd actually acknowledged it as a possibility. Of course it had been a fear of hers that she'd have the misfortune of finding him in the dark hallways during some night -- god, was she really that accepting of her fate of being stuck here already? -- and winding up on the wrong end of his telekinesis again, but it was a small institute. The patients were ushered places together.

The nurses wouldn't let her just strangle him on sight, that much was certain, but it didn't change the fact that she'd want to and having to play nice with Sylar just to keep the nurses off her back was something she was ninety percent sure she couldn't do. Ever.

Bella nodded her head, shrugging her shoulders soon after. "Smart, yeah. Annoying as hell? You bet. Especially when you're actively looking for someone and they keep telling you they aren't really who you think they are."

The teenager opened her mouth to say something else, but suddenly Claire slammed her fork on the table, causing Bella to jump from the sound of smashed plastic hitting the hard table. Eyes wide, heart pounding, she blinked a few times, unsure of what to say. The sudden outburst had her confused ... but just as soon as it started, Claire was back to normal, giving a laugh that even she knew was fake.

... But from the looks of it, Claire didn't want to speak about it. Who was she to force something out of something?

Oh, wait.

"Claire," Bella whispered, leaning as close as she could to the other girl, her voice hardly audible over the sound of the other patients. "Are you okay?"

Shit. Way to go, Claire. Don't try to hide the fact that you're having a crisis or anything. She had never been more jealous of Hiro's ability to rewind time, maybe if she could do that, she could go back and stop herself from being an idiot and making a scene. Bella's concern was genuine, though, and it made Claire's heart tug in her chest. She wanted to confide in someone, she wanted to burst at the seams and explain everything and cry. But, this wasn't the time or the place. There would be time for that after they were gone.

That, or she could go spend some time in the bathroom sobbing her eyes out alone and then return to coping with the rest of the world. Either would work, depending on how long she could hold out.

"Yeah," she couldn't give any leeway if she wanted to keep herself from breaking down. She had to keep up pretending everything was okay, even if she was failing at it, because she knew if she gave an inch the chink in her armor would take a mile and before she knew it she'd be standing naked in front of the entire Institute with her emotions spilling out. She sits back some, shaking her head and forcing that smile back up, but there are all kinds of fissures running through it now and it's almost too obvious that she doesn't mean it.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Bella. Like I said, I just got surprised by my uncle, and this thing with Sylar ... It was a pretty complicated morning and I was tired to begin with, that's all."

Bella didn't believe her. She had seen the sudden flare of emotion, heard the weak tone in her voice, the fake laugh. She knew she should probably try and force the information out of this girl and try to help, but ...

But.

She couldn't. It was obvious Claire was trying her hardest to keep whatever it was that was bothering her inside, and she had to respect that amount of effort. After all, she knew what it was like to keep secrets she wasn't suppose to speak of - just like Edward and the existence of vampires. No matter what, no matter what torture she had to sit through or what kind of pain she had to suffer, she would never share that secret. Perhaps this was the kind of secret Claire was currently keeping to herself about?

"Oh ... okay," she paused, keeping her eyes down towards the table, quiet for a moment ... before a determined look crossed her eyes, and she looked up at Claire. "If you ever need someone to talk to about something - anything at all - I promise to listen and not judge. I'm also an excellent secret keeper, if I do say so myself."

... Never mind the fact that she wanted to know desperately. So perhaps she was still nosy.

Leaning back in her chair, Bella poked at her bowl of cereal, soon pushing the untouched thing away. "So, will you be with your uncle tonight, then? If so, Edward and I can bring you to him, if you want. So you don't have to wander the hallways alone again."

This was horrible. She was supposed to be getting gradually more put together over time, not watching her psyche gradually unravel courtesy of her own personal boogeyman. After a deep breath, she manages to hold it together a little better.

"I appreciate the offer," and she really did, "but I'm kind of the strong, silent type." Or, rather, she was trying to be. She'd been so caught up in trying to be grown up for Peter and for Noah and for Nathan that it was what she'd had to become. She wanted to prove herself and to do that, she had to be independent. Self-sufficient. She couldn't lean on Bella's shoulder, not in this. She had to learn to deal with it herself. "I'll keep it in mind anyway, though."

And, moving on to a quick subject change, she went back to taking chunks out of her waffles, chewing on a bite and talking around it because, honestly, it's not like she was trying to impress anyone in this institute.

"I tried to talk to him about the sticking together at night thing, but I don't think it worked out too well." Peter had told her not to go out alone, though, and if that meant going to find him at night ... Well. Maybe she'd look around and see if she found him. Otherwise, it was none of his business what trouble she got into on her own.

"I was thinking of going out alone tonight, though." She took another thoughtful bite of her food -- she couldn't help it, rude as it was to talk with her mouth full; she was starving. "I mean, I don't want to put you in danger again, and it's not like anything in this place can hurt me beyond repair." With a shifty gaze, she looked up from her food to search Bella's eyes for a reaction.

Bella continued to watch Claire, even as she ate her waffle. It was times like this that she longed for the ability to read minds as Edward could. She knew she could always ask the vampire to read her mind and tell her what was going on ... but that was the greatest of privacy invasions. Edward couldn't control what thoughts he listened to, so he couldn't stop himself from hearing ... but asking to listen to specific thoughts? She could never.

Speaking of. Looking around the cafeteria for a moment, she finally caught sight of Edward sitting at a table looking ... well, he didn't look happy, to say the least. Sulking was the first word that came to her mind, and she sighed. She knew he was unhappy, but ... she wanted him to trust her.

"Maybe try the bulletin?" she asked, her eyes still locked on Edward for a few more seconds before finally forcing herself to look back at Claire. "Everyone reads it. I'm sure he will too."

However, at the mention of going out again, the teenager frowned, worry crossing her features. "Alone? But ... well, maybe you should try to get a hold of your uncle. You really could get hurt ..." her tone lowered, and she continued, "And I know you heal quicker than normal, but ... well, I don't know. I can't say don't go because I'd be a hypocrite. Just ... be careful, okay? I would say I'd come with you ... but ..."

Once again her eyes were cast towards Edward, and she turned back to look at Claire with a sheepish smile. "I think that if I went with you I would be in serious trouble."

The bulletin. Was that what it was for? Claire cast a look over in the bulletin board's direction. Maybe she could use that to talk to Peter about meeting up later tonight -- he'd mentioned that paramedic thing, and even if she had been distracted by the news of Sylar at the time, it'd be a good idea to try and talk it over with him more. But, she'd been afraid of the nurses hearing her talk about the monsters, and there was a good chance they read all the notes. She'd have to be discreet, if she used it.

With a sigh, she looked back to Bella, only to find that her attention was drawn elsewhere. Claire followed her gaze and saw the brooding individual -- she could only presume it was someone Bella knew, but she wasn't ready to jump to the conclusion that it was Edward quite yet, even if Bella's last acknowledgement that she'd be in trouble definitely indicated that. It helped ease Claire out of her discomfort, to focus on Bella's life instead of her own. Thinking of her and Edward instead of worrying about what poor soul Sylar was torturing with his company in that moment.

Quickly, she glanced around the cafeteria in a hurry to make sure Sylar wasn't there with her. The sudden feeling of dread took a moment to pass and then she looked back to Bella -- when she did, she appeared essentially calm again.

"I'll give it a shot," even if she wasn't using it to get in touch with Sylar -- she wasn't stupid enough to let him know she was here if he didn't already -- she was still kind of taking Bella's advice. Just … bits and pieces of it instead of the entirety.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to come out with me again. I don't want you getting in trouble." She smiled a little slyly at that, even though inwardly she could think of a lot of things wrong with the idea of getting in trouble with her fiance for doing what she thought was right -- was he that controlling? It wasn't really her business, though; not really. Bella was just her roommate, she'd known her for a day. If she was engaged to Edward, they'd probably known each other for years. Claire had no room to comment on their relationship.

"I promise, even if I do wind up deciding to go out alone, I'll come back in one piece. Don't worry." The smile she gave was actually fully reassuring; Claire was getting better at this lying thing.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if this was how it had gone for her dad. Was it this hard at first for him? Did he feel guilty? Did he want everyone to know the truth or had he always just decided he knew what was best for everyone involved? The bitterness was rising, though, so she tried to force the thoughts from her mind and focus on acting like she felt very differently than she really did.

"It's a good way to communicate with others," she admitted, sighing. "Almost like email and snailmail except ... it's on a bulletin board for everyone else to see, so there's little to no privacy. Still, it works and does what it's supposed to."

Getting in trouble? Bella bit her lip, looking down at her soggy bowl of cereal. "Well, it's not that I get in trouble, per say," she fiddled around with her spoon, thinking. "It's just that ... back when I was home, I was somewhat of a 'danger magnet'. It seemed like if there was anyone dangerous out and about they would find me. There was this one time that a group of men tried to corner me in an alley ..." a shudder rolled down her spine, and she sighed. "But thankfully by some stroke of fate-" A stroke of fate known as mental stalking "Edward found me and saved me. If it wasn't for him ... well. I'd have been in a lot of trouble. Though, I was fully prepared to bust some kneecaps and break noses thanks to P.E."

"So he worries," Bella continued, finally getting back on track. "I've ... worried him a lot, over the past half a year. I'm ... I'm all he has here."

Not counting Emmett, but she hadn't seen him in a while ...

Bella was silent for a few moments before finally speaking up again, and she looked at Claire with a soft smile. "There's the rec field, if you're looking for a weapon. There's a shed, I believe, with some baseball bats and whatnot. At least, that's what I've been told."

No privacy. That was an important thing to remember when posting notes up, and she was glad Bella had mentioned it or Claire probably would have forgotten and mentioned something she wouldn't want the other patients to see -- like her name, for starters. Or anything that might let Sylar in on the fact that she was there. But, making sure Peter knew it was her and Sylar didn't was going to be hard work, and it showed in the way she chewed her lip thoughtfully as Bella spoke.

Okay, so when Bella explained it that way, it was less creepy, but it didn't change the fact that Claire couldn't shake her initial knee-jerk reaction that this guy was a weirdo. It was just something about Bella's pauses and the fact the way she'd been talking about it the previous night. Then again, Claire was assuming the worst of everything in this place, so maybe it'd be better for her to give Edward a chance.

A little begrudgingly, she sighed and gave a smile.

"I know how you feel. The whole … worrying people a lot thing. I mean, you can imagine what kind of trouble I get into with … well, what I can do. Anyway, a lot of people worry when they shouldn't." And a lot of people got hurt trying to protect her, too, but she wasn't mentioning that. No, that was definitely getting filed under the 'let's not talk about it' column, where most of her specific life experience fell.

When Bella offered the help finding a weapon, Claire's smile became more genuine. Even if she didn't want her roommate going out alone, this girl was willing to do everything she could to help, and that did a good job of warming Claire's heart. She didn't have a lot of people willing to support her in her endeavor to defend herself, and the fact that Bella was one of the few -- well, it meant a lot.

"Thank you. I'll go down there tonight. If I find anything down there, I'll try to get something for us both, okay?" The shards of glass just weren't going to cut it long-term, if Claire could even figure out what happened to them.

Bella smiled, then sighed. "I admit, I'm jealous of your little ... quirk?" she said with a grin, continuing. "Though I can see how it might cause you problems ... how long have you been like that?" her tone became hushed then, not wanting anyone to hear them. Lord knew some people had exceptional hearing.

"That sounds ... amazing," she admitted, sighing. Leaning back in her seat, she swirled her juice around in her cup. "I really wouldn't mind a baseball bat. As long as I don't have to hit a ball or anything ... though, you know what, since I was so dangerous to others while playing volleyball, of all things, I'm sure me plus a baseball and a bat would mean really bad news for the monsters roaming around at night." She was joking, of course. ... If she were to get a baseball bat AND a baseball, she was sure she'd only hurt herself in the process of hitting the ball.

And that was a humiliating image.

"Especially since I don't think I'll be able to use those glass shards," Bella admitted with a frown, holding up her bandaged hands, wiggling her fingers slightly. "Unless I wrap the sharp side I hold onto up with something ..." It was a good idea, but she doubted it would fly with Edward once nightfall came.

"I've seen some people wandering around with swords, too," she said with a frown. "I wonder how they got so lucky."

"Quirk," Claire had to smile at that, shaking her head a little, "that's a good word for it. Most people stick to … freak of nature." She pushed food around on her plate for a minute before taking a bite and explaining further. It was hard to decide what was a good idea to tell Bella about and what was better kept to herself. Well, considering Bella had seen it in action, it wasn't much good to hide everything she could anymore, right? She sighed, lowering her voice. "As far as I can tell? Since I was born. When I was a baby, there was a fire … best guess is? This how I survived it." She sat back some, letting her voice return to a normal level and shrugging. "Who knows, though. Maybe I was just really, really lucky."

At that, she couldn't help but snort. Right. Since when had she ever been lucky? Because as far as Claire was concerned, she was pretty sure that her life had been a living nightmare for a few years now. Luckily, there was sports to distract her. Oh, yay. Another topic that Claire just loved discussing. Luckily, cheerleading had at least made her pretty good at pretending she was savvy in them -- or that she cared. Bella's own confessed lack of aptitude in them didn't hurt the conversation.

"Baseball bat. Well, I'm not promising you a ball, but we'll see how much damage you can do with a louisville slugger for now. Maybe next time we'll work on that pigskin." Wait. That … was football. She cringed visibly, shaking her head and shutting her eyes, making it obvious that she acknowledged her own error. "Or … whatever a baseball's made of." Hopefully, if she just chuckled it off, it'd be passable. She didn't really need Bella, like the rest of Union Wells, to jump on her about not liking sports as much as she should have.

"Well, you have Edward to look out for you, right?" She cast a shift glance over at him -- and for the first time noticed that God, he was beautiful. Weirdly so. Claire had definitely concluded that Bella was undeniably beautiful when she first saw her, but seeing Edward made Bella look plain in comparison. It warranted a double take, and she was still wearing the look of confusion when she turned back to Bella.

What was she talking about?

Right. Weapons.

"Um -- He has a weapon or something right? I mean, one of you should, especially if he's so set on you not going out by yourself." Reminding herself of how controlling he was had definitely been a good idea -- it sufficiently distracted her from how stunned she'd been. "I'm guessing he's not one of the lucky few who managed to sneak a sword in somehow."

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Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

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