Delilah (deewall) wrote in neogenesisrpg, @ 2009-04-18 02:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | delilah waller, jebidiah jefferies |
Who: Delilah Waller, Jebidiah Jefferies Jr.
What: Making plans to get back to something approaching normal.
When: Monday, 13th.
Where: Jeb's. Alaska Apartments.
Rating G
Status: Complete
It took two hours to make it back to Seattle, another two to ditch the ruined car and make it back to the loud confines of the Alaska Apartment building. Three hours of sitting in silence, waiting for an unfamiliar sound to signal the time to run. It took days to stop the tremble from reaching his hands.
Jeb barely cast a look at his unplugged laptop as he rose from his futon and carried what remained of his first aid kit to his bedroom door. He would have to step out of his apartment soon whether he liked it or not. Knocking lightly on the door frame, he cleared his through. "Are you decent?"
Her legs hanging over the edge of the bed, Delilah ran a hand through damp hair, as though to remind herself that her head hadn't been separated from her shoulders. That she was still whole and mostly healthy. That she was alive. She almost didn't jump at the sound of the knock. Almost. Already an improvement on the past twenty-four hours.
"Never am," she called back, adjusting her bra strap a little higher and giving up when it hit raw, exposed flesh. At least the bleeding had stopped.
"Kinky, reminds me when I go out to rent "Long Kiss Goodnight." Jeb cracked a joke as he backed into the room. "Think we have enough to rewrap your shoulder. Another day and I would've insisted on a doctor."
He sat down on the edge of the bed beside her, examining the wound for any signs of infection. "I think we could anyway, there hasn't been any signs that we were ID'd."
"It's just a scratch," she retorted as the bed dipped under his weight. "Isn't that cliché. "It's just a scratch." Look at us action figures." She shook her head, dejected and slipped her bra strap back off her shoulder. No sense in unnecessary pain.
"I'd have thought our names would be on the Most Wanted list already. Is that... normal? That they'd keep it quiet?"
"They probably didn't get a good picture with all of the smoke and glass around, much less know what we saw or what we have." Jeb mused as he cleaned the deep cut with disinfectant and covered it with pain relieving cream. "If I were them, I'd wait us out, wait for a mistake or a smoking gun."
Delilah gritted her teeth but played the good sport, keeping quiet while he disinfected the wound. She'd studied it enough in the bathroom, she had no deep urge to watch what he was doing. "So what's the plan? We lay low, move to a desert island and become the next Robinson Crusoe?"
"I'm allergic to nature." he snorted, wrapping gauze around her arm. "Laying low would lead to missing persons reports in the long run, so going back to something resembling normal would be good. With the video, making sure we can get it to more secure hands."
Fair point there, but that meant going back to her husband and the baby making. She somehow had a feeling Gil wouldn't just go along with that without getting some answers first. By-passing that part of his answer entirely, she focused on the more immediate. "Your friend in the glass house? Think he can help?"
"He might, I think we will need someone delivering this with a credible name. The House of Spades doesn't have it." Jebidiah pressed tape around the gauze and pulled back, making one last glance to ensure it wouldn't work itself loose. "I could spread it through the HoS channels, but I don't want this used before we know how much of a landmine this information is. All we do know is that they wanted to kill us for it."
"And they did kill your car," Delilah reminded, darting a look over her shoulder to check that he was finished and she could put her clothes back on. The shirt was ruined, but her apartment a couple of doors down hadn't been completely cleared when she'd moved. "I can't believe they killed all those people. It's insane." Especially after coming back and seeing the headlines in the city.
"Better the car than us," he joked yet the smile didn't reach his face. "All of this violence, to justify what? It's crazy." Jebidah went into the the bathroom to change into a t-shirt, the scratches from the glass shards mostly healed, the lines barely visible but they still irritated his skin.
"You have a few ideas, don't you?" Delilah called after him, tugging on a t-shirt and wincing as it pulled at the bandage. And then, because she was having a hard time with the keeping her distance thing, she followed him to the bathroom. "Theories. What're your pals saying online? Do they know what happened at Maple Falls yet?"
"No theories, a lot of them are waiting for someone on the upper deck to deny responsibility for everything. Usually it'd fall to me or Ace but..." Jeb's voice trailed off as he turned on the faucet and began to wash his face. "Why he'd go so far to kill in our name, in public...he was such a hermit."
"Maybe he lost it," Dee suggested half-heartedly, leaning her uninjured shoulder against the door frame. "Happens to hermits. Or they lost his mind for him. No clue." She bit her lip, tired, confused and worst of all, scared. "What's next for you? Gonna stay here?"
Jeb reached for his shaving kit behind the mirror. Routine and habit helped, and he was starting to sprout more than just a five o'clock shadow. "For now, staying where it's familiar until it isn't. Then, tap into my well of savings and actually move into a decent apartment."
Delilah bit the inside of her cheek, doubtful but in no position to argue. She didn't have a better solution. She'd never had more than a whim to go to Maple Falls and look where that got them. "Under your real name and everything?"
"Not sure they'd take online aliases on a rent application." he glanced over his shoulder through the mirror. "What do you plan to do?"
"Head home, what else?" It didn't feel safe or smart, but it would keep Gil out of trouble and maybe she could get him to vouch for her. He could be her best allibi for Tuesday night. Meeting Jeb's eyes in the mirror, she shrugged. "Gotta say communing with nature sounds like a better plan right now, but I gotta face the music, right?"
"Got to admit, you'd be safer off with the good doctor than a terrorist." Jebidah smiled before returning his attention to not nicking his skin. "It would be a good idea, before I get taken in for stealing his wife or something."
Delilah laughed through her nose. "I was gonna say you might end up on the wrong end of a mammogram, which is torture in itself, but he's probably too much of a pacifist." And she'd left him without as much as the courtesy of an explanation. "I'll go back, but I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be able to play the homemaker game. Between the graffiti and getting shot at, I need to do something."
"Think he might come round to our side? We could use a med head." He finished shaving and wiped his skin clean. "Even still, when you married him did he sign a prenup or are do you have access to his resources?"
"All I signed was the registration," Delilah replied and folded her arms over her chest. "I'd feel pretty horrible stealing his money, though. In case he's not into the whole fighting the government thing." Not that it would matter, in the grand scheme of things. Her feelings weren't worth all the lives lost. "What do you need?"
"You saw the Ticky's World post, right?" he asked, putting the shaving kit away before turning in Dee's direction. Money he really didn't need. "He had a point about none of us having the skill set to modify serum. Your husband works in that field. Since it's risky to dig into his digital files, see if he keeps any cases where you can find them."
"He's an OB-GYN," she pointed out, confused. "How would that help you?" Her shoulder twisted against the door frame so her back lay flat against it and she yelped because the stretch made her other shoulder ache. She couldn't win.
"Specializes in fertility, right?" he mirrored her position and leaned against the opposite door frame, crossing his arms. "If he's received medical reports on the serum that never made it to the public, maybe we can figure out what was behind that 'terrorist attack'."
Start with the first accusation and work his way down. If he could figure out the true motives behind them, perhaps the HoS could be cleared, if that was the intent at all.
"He's not Doctor Mengele," Delilah defended, as though it was her role to stand up for a man she barely knew who'd just happened to be randomly paired with her. "The government would know that. If there's any sensitive information, I don't think it would pass through his hands... but what the hell, right? What else am I gonna do when I'm not bare foot and popping out kids?"
"Hell if I know," Jeb shrugged and stepped away from the door. "I'm sure you'll think of something to do with your life, whether you're breeding or not. For all I know you'll have a militant army of little graffiti artists in five to ten years."
"That's possibly the creepiest thing you've ever said to me," Delilah snorted, less amused with the mental image now that she knew what they were up against. Now that she knew that there were guns involved and people died. She didn't bother to check how she looked in the mirror. There wasn't enough makeup in the world to hide the bags under her eyes. "I'll see what I can find on the serum. You're keeping your cell, yeah? Not gonna up and vanish from one day to the next?"
"As long as prepaid cards can be bought with cash, I'll keep it." Jebidiah sat on the bed and pulled on his socks and running shoes. "I'll see you halfway, need to get groceries at a 24-hour store somewhere."
Delilah smiled. "Kay. Cause that won't look suspicious at all." Although truth be told if there was ever an advantage in living where she used to live it was that no one paid attention to you. No one cared. She darted a look to his laptop in the other room, unplugged and switched off. No hope from that quarter.
He smiled back. "It'd look more suspicious if I walked you to your door and then dropped by to say hi to my buddy next door. Don't see two people sharing a bus will sound any alerts."
"Paranoia talking," she answered, shrugging it away like it was cool. Like everything was fine and dandy. "Steer clear from buying soap bars, though. Every homemade bomb in every movie uses soap."
"Good thing I like my fruity smelling shower gels, huh?" he teased, feeling more and more able to crack a joke and laugh at himself, even if the feeling didn't linger into a perpetual state. One hour at a time.
They were almost normal, Delilah thought, grabbing her coat but forgoing the effort to put it on. Her shirt hid the bandage well enough. "Tell me about it, I smell like coconut and vanilla. I feel like such a guy."
"Oh yeah, you reek of manliness." He pulled on his coat and reached for the courier bag that held the tape, hidden in a deep compartment in his bag. There was no risking leaving it alone in his apartment. "If your husband asks, I can rec the store for you later."
"Somehow, I don't think we'll get to the fragrance part of the conversation for a while yet." It was a joke until it wasn't. Delilah stuffed the CD copy of the tape into her back, flush with the fabric. Unless anyone started slashing through it wouldn't be easy to find it. "If he asks, I'll just tell him my lover likes his shower gel fruity."
"He might believe you, you know." Jeb opted for the stairs instead of the elevator. "Hopefully the conversation won't boil down to that. But if not, I'll keep watering your plastic plants."
"Don't worry. I"ll do my best to spare you the mammogram," Delilah smirked, following. The temptation to hole up in her old apartment was great but she resisted. They were carrying the equivalent of a bomb on their persons. Burying her head in the sand didn't seem like a way to keep it from going boom.