InsaneJournal

Who: Chloe Deacon & Grey Street
What: Grey gets an unexpected visitor
When: 27 May, early hours of the morning
Where: Grey's room, Rachel's suite
Rating: Low

The last few days felt like they’d been a whirlwind. Chloe had spent time with Jay watching movies, ducking away from Lucas when he came close with a look on his face like he wanted to talk and had been doing her very best to try and behave like a regular, high functioning normal person. She wasn’t sure Kelly was buying it but her sister wasn’t pushing, and since Scott had brought her dinner and some stuff from home, she hadn’t seen much of him. It made sense; he had a whole team of people to look after and here he had to be a Handler first, a brother second, and honestly it kind of worked better for her that way because she didn’t have to worry about him looking at her in that way.

That being said, she was struggling. More than she had been. Talking to Jay had felt like a weight was lifted from her chest, but only slightly because that pressure was still there whenever she was alone. And the nights were the worst; when she was alone with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company, nothing but guilt and grief winding around her thoughts.

She woke early from a nightmare, her chest tight and sweat slick on her skin, the sheets were strangling her, she couldn’t breathe. As she stumbled out of bed and landed on all fours, the sheets came with her in a suffocating tangle, and then, to get away from them, she was falling.

She fell through the floor, unable to solidify or slow herself down, she dropped through an empty room, then another one, all the way to the ground floor where slammed to a halt in a puff of air enough to slow her descent but not enough to stop her from colliding with the ground with a very loud thump, her hands and knees taking the brunt of the fall.

Grey was a light sleeper. She’d trained herself to be a light sleeper. She didn’t really dream that she knew of, or go deep, and residual noise was always enough to wake her. A sudden, instant presence in her room, one that wasn’t Danny or Clara at the door seeking some comfort and refuge, one that wasn’t Victor sneaking in because Kat had been especially mean to him that day, just a stranger. In her room.

Grey sprung from the bed like a cat trodden on, finding the nearest corner to wedge herself in, her hand on the plasterboard of the wall soaking in the material, leeching up her arm to shift part of her body to mimic the plaster.

She held her breath, hair in disarray -or more so than usual at least- her oversized shirt drooping to one side while she hastily tried to remember where the light switch was. “What is… How…” She already wasn’t sure what she was intending to ask her drop-in guest, but her hand not currently mimicking plaster finally found the light switch on the tiny bedside lamp to provide at least a little light in her room.

“How did you get in here?”

Chloe focused first of all on just breathing; her hands were aching, throbbing, like her knees and she stared at her fingers watching them disappearing into the ground. No. Breathing in through her nose, she looked up through messy strawberry-blonde curls to see someone - the person whose room it was - pressed against the wall. Her arm was the same colour as the wall and she looked wide eyed. Startled.

The intruder, because that was what she was, sat back on her haunches and looked utterly distraught. Chloe rested her hands on her knees, pushed her hair out of her face and looked at the other woman, apology written over her features.

“Ah- I’m so sorry,” she started, not quite getting to her feet just yet because she wasn’t entirely sure that she wouldn’t just sink down, end up going through the planet and falling into space. “I- uh- fell through the ceilin’.” She glances up, “From a few floors up. I- I am so- Christ,” her drawl was thick, “heck, I’m sorry. I just- lost control.”

As the young girl was struggling to get a grip of herself, Grey was slowly pulling herself together too. She wasn’t calm enough to make her arm and part of her torso slip back into flesh just yet, although she was glad it was just a mimic and she wouldn’t have to peel off her skin right now. She doubted it would go well with her evening guest.

Taking a measured breath, one that was entirely audible, Grey stayed in the corner, back covered and with a clear view of the door in case she needed to get to it. Or there was the window, she was only three floors up, she could survive that landing. Especially if she were all plasterboard.

“It is… understandable, to lose control.” It wasn’t okay, not really, that the girl ended up in Grey’s room. It was very lucky that Clara was with Danny and not Grey that night, or they were with Kat or whoever, but they weren’t there. With Grey. Or things could’ve been much worse.

“Do you have to go back through the ceiling? Do I need to get you ladders? Or a boost?” Not that Grey needed her to leave right this instant, but if she was going to need to push someone through her ceiling she wanted to at least be prepared.

Chloe looked at the woman again, more closely this time. She was...melting into the wall? Disappearing into it? Either way, she had messed up big time by falling and it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t understandable to lose control, not when her powers meant she would fall through the floor, fall into someone’s sanctuary.

“It’s not okay,” she said, “I should- should have better control.” She swallowed, rubbed at her wrists. “I’m- you’re part wall. Is that- I didn’t mean to startle you none.”

At the question about going back upstairs, she shook her head, “I’ll just use the door and the stairs… it’s- I’m on a higher floor so I’ll walk.” She frowned a little. “I ain’t gonna hurt you, are you okay?”

Her clothes had started to alter she realised, and the plaster was spreading more. She was still somewhat startled and it was an automatic reflex to try and blend in with the nearest surface. “I am … I will be okay.” She just needed to settle. Taking another deep inhale, slowly exhaling, Grey moved away from the wall, focusing on letting the mimic fade.

“I am not good at surprises. I can mimic surfaces, it is why I look like the wall.” She’d even taken on the same sad and plain colour of her wall. Sitting at her desk chair, trying to not seem too defensive, but not willing to give up the space between her and the other girl just yet, Grey let the mimic gradually recede.

“I do not think you meant to fall from your room, into mine. It is not your fault.” Sometimes, her friends lost control too, and she never thought it was their fault. It wasn’t this girl’s fault she didn’t have iron clad control either. “Do you want to rest a moment? Do you need water?”

“I don’t like surprises either,” Chloe shared, still looking sheepish and worried. “You handled me droppin’ in on you a lot better than I’da handled someone droppin’ in on me.” And wasn’t that the truth. Chloe would have likely fried something if she was startled, fried something and dropped through the floor. She struggled on a good day with her control nowadays, like being surrounded by people like her meant her attention seemed to slip.

She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I had a bad dream,” she shared with a rueful smile, getting to her feet and rubbing at her knees, backing up a little to give the other woman some more space. She didn’t want to do anything that might alarm her or cause her to feel even more upset by the intrusion than she already did and even in the half light, Chloe could feel her cheeks burning in embarrassment.

“I- no- Are you sure you’re gonna okay? Do you need some water? Can I get you anything? I just- feel like I oughta do somethin’ to apologise better than just sayin’ I’m sorry a hundred times.”

It was a testament to how Grey was recovering, maybe, from Cheshire, that she hadn’t automatically attacked. She could think of numerous compounds she could’ve husked into instantly to make herself harder, stronger, more destructive to anyone trying to hurt her. To doctors trying to hurt her.

Instead she’d slid for defence, rather than offence. She might need to discuss that with Rachel, or Adelaide, what it meant, if it was good.

“I think I have bad dreams sometimes too. I wake up and I am not sure what has startled me, but I am awake and I cannot sleep again.” She never really knew what it was that affected her, or why she woke up suddenly, but she could get being scared by that, losing control.

“What is your name? I am Grey.” She was torn between regaining her solitude, wondering if the girl was okay, and not sure if she was okay to be on her own again yet. Asking some questions seemed okay. Moving slowly, Grey stood up and went to the corner of her room where the little cold box was where she stashed her bottles of water and two cans of her preferred fizzy drink. “Do you want to sit?” She had a bottle of water for the other girl, just in case, and Grey opened her own to take a slow, careful, measured sip.

“That sucks,” Chloe said honestly. “Havin’ dreams you can’t remember is the worst. ‘Specially if they wake you an’ you can’t remember why or what they were about.” She wished that was the case for her, but she supposed it would be so much worse if she woke up panicked and afraid and couldn’t remember the cause. At least she knew what woke her. And she didn’t want to deal with it, which was why it haunted her at night.

Her hands were shaking a little, adrenaline coursing through her veins still, the aftermath of the nightmare and using her abilities. She reached out carefully and took the bottle of water, just holding it in her hands for a moment, focusing on the cool plastic against her skin, the sensation of holding it, feeling the plastic against her hands, knowing that she needed to stay solid so that she didn’t drop it. “Thanks.”

She perched back down on the floor, resting the cool bottle against her knee, both of which were slightly red from the fall. “A- I’m Chloe. Chloe Deacon. Wish I’da met you under better circumstances, Grey. I’m so sorry for fallin’ into your room.”

Remembering dreams was, for the most part, the least of Grey’s problems. But she did understand the sentiment behind the notion. If she could remember what woke her, she could deal with it rationally and logically; a monster under her bed, check for monster, pacify her mind, return to sleep. It was more complicated not knowing.

Since they both seemed okay in the dull light from the table lamp, Grey didn’t move to turn on the overhead light, settling herself on the floor too, flexing her newly flesh arm a little now that the plaster sensation had left. “You do not have to apologise, Chloe. Accidents happen, and you did not mean to.”

Grey could accept accidents, they happened. Like when Victor accidentally caused a pain surge in her head from thinking too loud and too fast at her, or when Clara accidentally used her powers too much that she ripped her own hair out, or when Kat accidentally scratched someone. Accidents happened.

It was when people meant to hurt that Grey didn’t like it. “Do you want to talk about your nightmare? Or something different?” Because sometimes it helped, and sometimes it didn’t. Chloe could’ve been either one.

“Yeah, but still, I feel bad.” One more thing to feel guilty about. “‘Cause I startled you an’ all, made you go all… wall.” She unscrewed the cap off the bottle in her hands and took a little sip of the water. It was cool, that was nice. “That’s a neat power, by the way, I ain’t never seen anythin’ like that before.”

There were so many powers here that she hadn’t ever seen before; every day was something new. And that was in both ways remarkable and terrifying, seeing how people were asked to practise with their abilities, asked to develop them further, test their limits. She had one that was secret, tucked away because she was ashamed of what had happened because of it. She didn’t know if she should just tell them to avoid being punished later on down the line for hiding it or if it was better to hide it so they didn’t try and make her use it.

“Shouldn’t you be, I dunno, goin’ back to sleep. Ain’t- ain’t time to be wakin’ up or nothin’ and honestly it- unless I woke you properly now and you ain’t gonna be able to fall asleep again?”

Grey didn’t both explaining her main power, the one she had to train at, learn, figure out compounds and become. The one that the doctors tried to exploit to make her become something useful, something they could use to conduct or control. “Thank you. I think sometimes I would like to pass through walls though.” If she could’ve done that, she could’ve maybe saved all her friends before they were hurt so much.

Sighing, Grey shook her head, “I will be able to sleep, but it may be a while. My head is…” She wasn’t sure what the proper term was. She knew they labelled her as an amnesiac, she had no recollection of memories from previous to Cheshire, her life was blank. She didn’t dream or have loose memories, not even ones Victor could find. “A little broken.”

She wasn’t crazy though, but the things done to her were potential in making someone crazy. And while she didn’t remember what she dreamed, startling her had the undesirable effect of making her think about the things that might’ve startled her. “If you would like I could walk you up the stairs? To make sure you do not fall through again.”

“Sometimes it’s pretty useful,” Chloe admitted, “but I ain’t used to bein’ able to use it so freely. I hid it for years.” She’d practised it in the basement of her parents’ house, in the games room where she wouldn’t be disturbed and after Louis caught her, they’d practised in various other places around the house, always where they’d not get caught. “But so many people here have got such amazin’ powers, I really like hearin’ about them. Maybe you could tell me at a more decent time in the mornin’ about yours?” Genuine curiosity flickered across her face but because Grey hadn’t offered anything more, Chloe didn’t push.

Not everyone wanted to talk about their abilities, after all.

Broken? “Ain’t nobody really broken,” Chloe said, “I don’t know your history or nothin’ but you’re here and so maybe whatever’s goin’ on in your head that you think is broken is just a little scrambled. But nothin’ ain’t so broke it can’t be fixed.”

She got to her feet again, understanding that the comment was a ‘get out of my room’ in a polite fashion and honestly she had vastly overstayed my welcome. “I don’t mind,” she offered, “If you wanna walk for a bit and it might help get you sleepy then that’s fine by me, it’d be nice to have the company but- my momma would murder me for stayin’ after crashin’ in on you like this, so I oughta think about goin’ back to my own room anyway.”

Grey didn’t know if she’d hid hers from family, what family she might’ve had. She might’ve shown them, they might’ve accepted her. They might’ve been like her. She might have people out there looking for her who knew everything she was and still wanted her. But she didn’t know, she couldn’t tell if she’d practised at home, if she mastered things she’d later forgotten or if there were more she didn’t know. “Practise is good.” Understanding needs experimenting, experimenting leads to understanding. Grey shook it out of her head, because she could learn without experimenting.

“I have amnesia. There was an injury. Now my head is a little broken,” she wasn’t sure how else to term it really, she was sure that it was how she meant it, but maybe Chloe thought it was something different. “It means I do not know sometimes what it is I am worried of.”

Chloe standing had Grey getting to her feet anyway, a small smile on her face when Chloe mentioned her mother. Some people had good families, some people didn’t have families like Clara and Kathryn. “I will walk you to the stairs. If you are sure you will not fall again. I would not like if you were hurt and I did not stay with you.” Because Chloe didn’t seem to mean to be a bother at all, like Clara thought she was a bother. And Grey didn’t think either of them were.

“Oh,” Chloe said, not entirely sure how to respond to the information shared, that Grey had amnesia. That had to be hard. She thought the idea of losing the memories of everything - the good and the bad - was terrifying. She didn’t even know how she’d cope, or how she would be. She guessed pragmatism was the name of the game, though. If you didn’t know what you’d forgotten, could you mourn for it? “That sucks,” she offered. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

She wet her lower lip, “You’re real nice. Don’t know many folk’d worry about someone who feel through their ceilin’.” She rubbed at her knees, “Prolly just gonna be a little bruised in the mornin’, yanno?”

“It is what it is.” Grey had come to terms with not having her memories. Rachel was helping her find out facts, but nothing really seemed to be familiar to her. Which meant it was unlikely her memories would ever return to her, unlike some other people with amnesia, who eventually remembered. “I have friends, and they are important. I can move forward without worrying about going backward.” At least now she wasn’t as concerned. There could be people who cared about her. But she also had people here who cared about her.

Moving towards the door, Grey gave a careful shrug, “You are nice, you did not mean to cause distress. I feel you were just as distressed as me.” And Grey being mad wouldn’t have helped either of them calm down at all. “When we have both gotten sleep, and maybe breakfast, I would also like to talk more, I can share about my powers if you wish to know more.”

Chloe smiled, as sleepy as it was warm. If she’d been more awake, less distressed, it would have been brighter, but it was what it was. She rubbed at her eyes with the heel of one hand and nodded, “I’d like that,” she said honestly. And speaking to more people might stop her siblings giving her that look whenever they thought she wasn’t paying attention. Not that she saw Matt or Scott much. Their jobs were here, and that had to be their priority, and all.

She opened the door carefully, peering out in the darkened hallway, lights flickering on when they sensed the movement.

“You sure you’re gonna be able to go back to sleep?”

“I will be fine.” Grey was adamant about walking Chloe to the stairs at least, making sure she didn’t sink into any of the steps as she went up the stairs. “Especially if I know you are on your way upstairs and doing okay yourself.”

And there was time in the morning, later tomorrow, or today, she didn’t look at the time, where she could talk to Chloe again, when they were both more awake and alert. “I hope you are also able to get to sleep.”

Chloe stopped as she climbed the first two steps and then walked back down them again. “You’re a real nice person, Grey,” she said, holding her hand out for the other woman to shake. That was only polite, that was how you were supposed to introduce yourself to someone. “I’m real glad if I was gonna fall into anyone’s room it was yours. Ain’t-” she was cut off by a yawn. “Coulda been real messy or bad if I’d fallen into someone else’s who wasn’t so nice.”

She offered the other woman a brighter smile. “Honest, I’m gonna be okay from here. I’ll concentrate an’ all, so I don’t go fallin’.”

Grey returned the smile, although hers was a little tight, like she still wasn’t sure how to smile, her lip ring jutting out slightly, and shook Chloe’s hand. It was nice, contact without expectation, without pain, with someone other than her friends.

“I am glad that I could help when you were scared too.” Although if Chloe was sure she could concentrate on getting up the stairs, Grey would believe her. “If you need to talk, at any point, I am a good listener.”

“Thanks, Grey,” Chloe said, pushing her hair back out of her face with both hands, trying to tuck the wild waves back behind her ears. “I am too, y’know, if you ever wanna talk about anythin’. ‘M good at listening and not sayin’ nothin’.”

She bit her lower lip and looked up the stairs. “I should head back up an’ leave you to tryin’ to get back to sleep. Sorry again, but it was real nice to meet you.”

She hovered for a moment before she lifted a hand in a wave and started heading up the stairs carefully, taking it one at a time until she disappeared around the bend and out of sight. Back to her room, back to sleep. She’d message Grey in the morning to thank her again, and maybe Lucas, to ask what she could do to say sorry for crashing into someone’s room.

“I will remember that. Sleep well.” Grey took a few steps away from the stairs, heading back, waiting until Chloe was up the first few sets of stairs with no incident before she headed back towards her room with a yawn.

She really didn’t see there being any trouble for her to get back to sleep.