Sarah Hart (hasgoodaim) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2014-03-05 18:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, ~2014 march, ~25 points, ~~john smith (number4), ~~sarah hart (hasgoodaim) |
Who: Sarah Hart and John Smith
What: Sarah's arrival
When: Wednesday evening
Where: Somewhere in town
Warnings: talk of violence; spoilers for The Fall of Five
Status: Closed/Complete
Sarah was mentally and physically exhausted, but she was still on high alert as they waited in the parking lot outside the zoo for John and hopefully BK to join them. She had no idea how the Mogs had found them in Chicago, but she was grateful she, Sam, and Malcolm had been able to mostly hold them off, though she was devastated that they had made off with Ella. John's decision to heal Malcolm instead of saving her still didn't make a lot of sense but she knew he would explain when he joined them.
Sam and Malcolm were having an intense conversation in hushed tones and Sarah didn't want to interfere, so she decided to do a circuit around the lot, keeping an eye out for any sign the Mogs were on their trail again.
Despite being on high alert, she blinked and became disoriented. She looked around and realized she was no longer in the zoo parking lot. What the hell? Where was she? How did she get here. She reached for the gun tucked in the waistband of her jeans.
"Hello?" she called tentatively. Had the Mogs attacked again and somehow wiped her memory? Was this some kind of illusion? She seemed to be in small town, oddly similar to Paradise.
***
John had taken to going for a jog every evening around Madison Valley. Not for exercise - he couldn’t go fast enough to even work up a sweat or breathe hard, let alone actually get a good cardio workout, but it helped him see what was going on in a way that was not the least bit suspicious. His ferret liked to travel along in the pocket of his jacket, blabbering to him constantly about the things it was seeing and smelling and feeling. He missed BK and his lack of pointless chatter. Gods, he hoped BK was still alive. It still killed him, not knowing.
He also hadn’t looked at his ankle yet. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. He couldn’t bring himself to discover which of his friends was dead in Florida, which one of the tiny number of them left wasn’t still there to fight for Lorien’s survival. The very idea of losing anyone made him sick. So he’d just closed his eyes when he washed it, and when he dressed. He knew he’d have to look eventually, but it wasn’t the right time yet.
The ferret’s chatter kept him from noticing right away that there was someone ahead of him on the sidewalk with a gun out, looking confused. When he finally saw her, he stopped nearly instantly, staring, his heart beginning to pound in his chest like it did nearly every time he saw her.
“Sarah!?”
***
"John?" Sarah was shocked to see her boyfriend standing there. Especially because he didn't look like he had just battled a bunch of Mogadorians and was on the run for his life. This had to be some kind of trick. She was clearly back in captivity and Setrakus Ra was trying to mess with her mind again.
It wasn't going to work. She was stronger now. She trained her gun on him and stood defiantly in place. "I'm not falling for this again," she said, her voice like steel. "What have you done to me?"
***
When Sarah pulled the gun, John raised both of his hands in the air, his eyes going wide. He wasn’t angry - how could he be, when she was just acting in the interest of her safety? He wanted her to stay safe, and do everything in her ability to keep that way.
“Sarah, it’s me. I promise, it’s me. I’m not him. You’re not with the Mogadorians.”
Hands raised, he took a step forward. “Put the gun down, okay? Put it down and we’ll talk. I can prove it’s me.”
***
The moment he stepped closer, Sarah pulled the trigger. She wasn't about to be a victim again. Whatever this place was, however she ended up here, she was going to get out and help John and the others rescue Ella.
***
John saw her finger move, and although he was surprised, he also felt a surge of pride that she’d actually done it, that she was capable of shooting at someone who looked like him in order to keep herself safe.
He raised his hand, stopping the bullet in mid-air, then closed his fist, letting it fall to the ground.
“Sarah, it’s me. Setrakus Ra couldn’t do that. You know that. He’s not telekinetic.”
He looked around to make sure they were the only ones in the immediate vicinity and put his hands out towards her, turning on his lumen.
“It’s me.”
***
Sarah's face turned from determined to horrified as John stopped the bullet and turned on his lumen. She knew that Setrakus Ra couldn't fake his abilities, which meant that this really was John, despite how little sense this all made, and she had nearly shot her boyfriend.
"John!" she exclaimed, tucking her gun away and running into his arms. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry. I thought they captured me and he was messing with me again."
There were so many questions she had about where they actually were and how they had gotten there, but for the moment, she was going to indulge in the guilt she felt. If John's powers had failed, she could have killed him and the thought made her shake in fear.
"Please forgive me," she murmured, face buried against his chest.
***
John wrapped his arms around her, feeling that surge of...elation and joy that he always felt when she was close, or when they were touching. Despite what Six had said, he believed what Henri had told him, that the Loric loved once, and that once was forever. He couldn’t imagine loving anyone else the way he loved her, and he didn’t want to. She was the one for him, the only one. He kissed the top of her hair, running a hand gently up her back.
“Shhhh, it’s okay. I want you to do that, if you ever think you’re in danger, if you ever think someone’s here to hurt you, I don’t want you to hesitate.” He lifted her face to his and gave her an adoring smile. “If it’s me, I’ll stop it, or my shield bracelet will. And if it’s not, then they’ll be dead, and you’ll be safe.”
He brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and kissed her temple.
“Did you just get here?”
***
Sarah allowed herself to just relax against him and soak in the feelings of absolute rightness that she felt when they were together for a few moments. These moments of peace were few and far between for them, given the war that John and his people were fighting and she had gotten in the middle of by virtue of loving him. He was worth it though.
Soon enough though, she had to answer his question. "I guess?" she said. "But I'm not sure where here is or how I got here."
He seemed calm enough though so she figured they were relatively safe at the moment.
***
“I’ve only been here for a few days,” he said. Of course, he was more used to being the new kid. He’d been the new kid most of his life, although it had hardly been something he’d enjoyed. More than anything, he just wanted to live somewhere. To have a home he didn’t have to leave after a few months. But that wasn’t his fate, and his life was for Lorien now, and for the foreseeable future.
“Nobody seems to know. There are people from all sorts of different places and times here. It’s confusing, but I don’t think there are any Mogs here.” He wasn’t going to tell her how he knew that, that he’d taken a chance and had done the very thing that had ended up getting Number 2 killed. “At least now we seem to be safe. I’m trying to keep a low profile, as usual, but you know how that is.”
He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing in the smell of her, trying not to grin like an idiot from his joy of her being here. He shouldn’t be so happy that she was trapped here too, but he couldn’t help it.
“I missed you.”
***
She couldn't help but smile at him and steal a quick kiss. "I missed you, too," she said, despite the fact that as far as she was concerned, they had just seen each other an hour ago. Of course, prior to that, they had been fighting for their lives against the Mogs and before that, John had been in a coma and she hadn't been sure she would ever get to talk to him again.
It almost seemed too good to be true though. They were stuck in some strange town with no idea how they got there and there were no Mogs?
"John, I don't understand," she said. "Where are we? The last thing I remember was waiting for you and BK in the zoo parking lot with Sam and his dad."
That reminded her of his Chimera and she looked around for an animal trailing John. "BK is okay, right? Is he with you?"
***
Ah, they were from almost the same time, then. Apparently that wasn’t a given in this place. “It’s called Madison Valley, Indiana,” he said with a shrug. “And nobody seems to know how we got here. I thought I’d developed a weird legacy for interdimensional travel, or something, until I found out there are like...over a hundred people who have been pulled here.”
When she mentioned BK, his face fell and he shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t found him yet.” Some of the color drained from his face at the idea of losing his oldest friend, the one who’d been with him through everything. One of his few links he still had with Lorien.
“Come on, let’s get you inside, it’s cold out here. Then we can talk more.”
***
Sarah frowned when he said that he hadn't found BK. The Chimera had saved both of their lives so many times, the idea of continuing the fight against the Mogs without him was not a pleasant one. "We need to go back and find him," she said. "And find the others in Florida."
It felt wrong to have their group separated, but they hadn't had a choice with Ella and John out of commission and needing to get Five's chest. And as much as she liked the idea of having a safe place to spend time with John, she knew that they couldn't stay here.
***
“I know,” he said, his voice dropping uncomfortably. He felt the burn on his ankle, the burn that he was afraid to look at. “One of them - “ He took a deep breath, feeling ill. “One of them’s dead. I don’t know which one. There’s a - my ankle - “ He shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
He pulled her closer against him for a moment, not ashamed to admit to her that he was trembling.
“I know we have to get back.. But I don’t know if we can right now. Come on, I’ll take you to where I’m staying, and then we can talk more. I don’t like being so - out in the open.”
***
"Oh, John," she said, as devastated by his news as he was. The rest of the Garde had become family to her and knowing they had lost another one was heart-breaking. "I'm sorry."
She wanted to encourage him to look at his scar, or at least let her look, but she could also understand the comfort of ignorance in not knowing for sure which of their friends was gone.
"Where are you staying? We don't have anything." Now that she realized they were going to be here for a while, her practical side piped up and realized they would need money and clothes and food.
***
“They give us debit cards, at City Hall,” he said carefully. “I don’t have one. They want a blood sample, and I can’t do that. If they got my blood - I mean, if the government’s in on finding us, I don’t want the government having my blood and a possible way to track me. I’m not human; that would definitely show up if I gave them my blood.”
He looked at her for a long time, hating that he had to ask her this, but they had to eat, and she was human - her blood wouldn’t raise any red flags at all.
“Would you be against maybe giving them a sample so we could get your card activated? You don’t have to. I’d never make you. If you don’t want to, we could find another way.”
The rest of it...he didn’t want to talk about, although he knew he couldn’t ignore the truth any more than he could ignore the pain when the scar had been burned into his ankle.
***
"What the hell kind of place makes you give a blood sample?" Sarah asked. She had never heard of anything so draconian in school and it didn't seem much like something the government would do. Then again, she never thought the government would work with evil aliens who wanted to take over the Earth.
"Yeah, I mean, as long as you don't think my information will flag anyone's attention to where we are," she said. She wasn't crazy about the idea, but it was something she could do to protect John. Unfortunately, the government knew she was with John and supporting the Garde because the FBI had been the ones holding her captive.
***
John didn’t like the idea either, but what choice did they have? If Sandor had been here, maybe he could have done some computer thing to make their debit cards work without a blood test, but he wasn’t. And John knew too little about computers himself to attempt it. He’d just flag them and get them in trouble, he had no doubt.
And Sarah would be safe, wouldn’t he?
A niggling doubt in the back of his mind made him shake his head.
“No, no, I don’t want that. We’ll find another way. I don’t want - they could find you. I’m not worried about me, but if anything happened to you - “ He felt sick at even the thought, and pulled her tightly against him, kissing the top of her head.
“We’ll find something to eat. We’ll find a way to get money, but I don’t want you doing that. You’re right. It’s a bad idea.”
***
She snuggled against his side. "What have you been doing since you got here?" she asked, still unsure exactly how it was possible that he had been there for days. "I mean, I'm not against doing it if we need to, but maybe we can figure out some other way."
They were so out of their depth here, but that seemed about par for the course with them these days. And they had managed to survive everything else life had thrown at them, so they could surely figure out a way to survive this place. Especially if they weren't running from the Mogs here.
***
“I haven’t been doing much,” he admitted. Truth was, he’d been grabbing meals here and there with people who offered them for free, trying to put off the time when he was going to have to come up with money of his own. Arriving here with his chest would have been nice; the priceless jewels Henri had saved so carefully would have come in useful here.
“But I can’t keep doing nothing forever,” he said with a sigh. Especially now that Sarah was here. He’d have to make sure that they were safer now, especially since she didn’t have the ways to protect herself that he did. The Mogs had already shown that they’d be more than glad to use her against him.
“Come on. Let’s get inside and talk. I have a place that I found. I can’t use the apartment that they gave me because they also gave me some guardian from town, and I don’t trust them. But I’ve squatted enough in my life that I can do it for a few more days.”
***
Sarah followed him to his place, thinking about all of the things he had told her about this place and what he had been doing. She could obviously understand his hesitation over being assigned a guardian, but at the same time, squatting in an abandoned building and trying to avoid detection in a small town like this might not end up working out very well.
"I'll go and do whatever I need to at Town Hall to keep us safe," Sarah said. "But are they going to try to give me a guardian too?"
***
“Probably,” he said, honestly. “From what I can tell, they’re trying to give them to everyone under the age of 18. Which yeah, I guess I understand, but that doesn’t really work for me, you know? I wouldn’t want to put my guardian in danger, and while there aren’t any Mogs here now, who knows when they’ll show up? I mean, if we can get here, they can too.”
He led her into an old abandoned building that had once been a factory of some sort, and up the stairs to what had obviously been the offices. It overlooked the floor of the factory, and gave a good view of anyone coming in. He had it dressed up as nice as he could, but it still was what it was.
“You don’t have to stay with me, if you’d rather stay someplace nicer. I’d understand.”
***
"I'd always rather be with you, John," Sarah said, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "And I know we need to do what's going to keep us safest."
Unfortunately, she had no idea what that might be given that she had just arrived. For now, she was content to trust him and his judgment, but if the town was tracking people who arrived, especially underage people, it might cause more harm than good for them to try to buck the system.
***
John squeezed her hand back, relieved that she was staying with him. If she hadn’t wanted to, he wouldn’t have said anything, but it always felt...more right with her close. There was more to be afraid of, of course. He had to be more careful and take fewer chances, because as brave and smart as she was, she couldn’t fight back like he could. But she also gave him a .reason to fight. As if he needed more.
“I know,” he said softly. “And I’m trying to figure out what that is. I don’t know. I put out a message on the network when I got here, and if there were Mogs here, they would have found me already. It was probably a stupid thing to do - but I didn’t know how else to know.”
***
Sarah frowned at the idea of him putting himself in danger like that, but she also understood why he would take the risk. She had no idea how she would have reacted to this place if John hadn't found her as soon as she arrived.
"We'll figure it out together," she said, confident that they would make the right decision if they worked as a team. They balanced each other out that way, able to look at all sides of the problem and come up with a solution that worked. It had kept them alive so far, so she was in favor of keeping it up.
"At least we're here together."
***
“Yeah,” he said with a smile, sitting in an old rusted chair that squeaked as he moved it. This place was hardly luxurious, but sad to say he’d lived worse places. “I figure we can fix this place up a little. Get some space heaters. The building keeps the wind out, anyway, so it’s better than nothing, but it’s cold at night. Really cold. I made a little fire last night in here,” he pointed to some papers in the corner that had been burned recently, “But I don’t like sleeping with a fire going. And who knows who could see it?”
His whole mind was geared towards privacy and secrecy, and it was hard to break that mindset even when he could. If he could. He hadn’t been here long enough to really know if it was safe.
***
Sarah looked around and definitely saw the potential in the space. It would be nice to have a safe place of their own. If anything about this situation was safe, that was. She pulled her gun out of her waistband and set it down on the floor before sitting on his lap.
"We'll make it work somehow," she said, content to just sit with him for a while and enjoy some quiet time together, something that had been scarce through the majority of their relationship.
***
John smiled, putting his arms around her as he pulled her in for a kiss. Things were, of course, infinitely better with Sarah here. How could they be anything else? She was worth everything - the worry, the fear, the extra work it would take to keep her safe. Way more than just worth it.
“Of course we will. We’ll make everything work, and somehow we’ll get home, and beat the Mogs, and then we’ll...you’ll…” He kissed her forehead, unable to quite say the words yet. Come back to Lorien with me. Was that asking too much? He’d mentioned it to her before, but he knew it wasn’t as simple as a yes or no answer, and that it was something she’d have to think about for a long time. It was a little more than asking her to move to Chicago with him, after all.
***
There were a lot of ifs and maybes in their future and Sarah just nodded, knowing that once they got back home and defeated the Mogs, she would have a tough decision to make. She knew that John had to go back to Lorien and that he wanted her to come too, but as much as she loved him and wanted to be with him, she wasn't sure she was ready to make that commitment.
And in this particular moment, she didn't want to have that conversation so she simply snuggled against him and repeated his words. "Yes, we'll make everything work." As far as she was concerned, that included figuring out what would happen after.