Day 50: Cafeteria (Brunch)

[selfrescuer.livejournal.com]

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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[autophoenix.livejournal.com]

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.

[vitale.livejournal.com]

"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."

[autophoenix.livejournal.com]

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.

[vitale.livejournal.com]

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."

[autophoenix.livejournal.com]

"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."