InsaneJournal

what you are doing is screwing things up inside my head
Who: Isobel & Bryan [NPC]
What: Isobel is confronted by her stalker outside her work, and he reveals some very interesting details about the past few months.
Where: Just outside Spring Growth.
When: Friday, April 28.
Rating: R; trigger warning for some pregnant female abuse.

Even with the sun setting later and later following the spring equinox, Isobel continually felt sad to see it go. The nighttime brought with it far too much empty space for her mind to run amuck, thinking back over how Obed had shifted form in the middle of the hallway, where that thing behind him had come from. She felt embarrassed about how she'd reacted, but the gearshift in her mind had twisted down to primal and it was all she could do to run. Alice and Rafe had served to help calm her down and, like a coward, she'd spent the rest of that horrible week in Alice's apartment.

Even after the floors had shifted back, Isobel had simply gone to D3 solely to grab a change of clothes and the few things she needed for work. It was strange, but somehow none of them remembered her missing for the last week; instead of trying to dig into that more, she concentrated on what needed to be done. She had avoided Obed at all costs, unsure of how to even begin to rectify the situation; the few times they'd run into one another were brief, him turned back to giving her the space she apparently wanted. Their conversation had been going so well, but now whenever she thought of approaching him she felt the same sense of dread and onset panic attack as she did when thinking of Bryan. She'd gotten little work done in the week following the strange events at Pax Letale, having to reassure many of her employees that she was fine and then lock the door to her office until she could stop herself from crying.

Terror over that one event seemed to wash other old fears away. She'd all but forgotten Bryan and his sick little love notes and pictures, the most recent of which she'd received that week from Alice herself. It was one reminder too many, but she didn't think she was unsafe at her workplace. She'd been wrong about many other things, so she could be forgiven in thinking that.

"Hey Izzy."

She nearly dropped her hard shelled briefcase in spinning about at the sound of the familiar voice. Halfway through the parking lot situated near the Spring Growth greenhouse, the few sources of light were upside down orange cones extending from street lamps onto the cold blue ground. And in the middle of one, as if placed there on purpose, was Bryan. He looked much more put together than he had the last time she'd seen him; now he was clean shaven, his clothes were still worn but at least they were clean, and he looked... Well, he looked like himself. Isobel swallowed, frozen in place, unsure of what to do.

Then her free hand became a fist. She was tired of all of this, too goddamn tired of everything everyone else was doing to her. Though she did not move from where she stood, she straightened, forcibly relaxing her shoulders as her gaze met him square in the eye.

"What the fuck do you want, Bryan?" Her voice was thready, light, sounding as though she'd just woken from a deep slumber and had not yet released herself fully of the dregs of dreamland. In return, Bryan cracked a wide smile and shrugged.

"At this point? I'm not really sure. But I'm kind of making a career out of fucking up your life as much as you fucked up mine, so--"

"I didn't do anything to you!" Isobel's arms thrust down, her form an explosion forward as she took a step toward him in an attempt to verbally defend herself. She repeated herself, an attempt to convince them both. "I made my own choices, Bryan, they were mine to make."

Bryan took a step closer to her, his arms swinging free at his sides. She could easily remember how he'd grabbed her and shoved her head through a car door. She fought to not take a step back.

"No, you made choices that affected me. You did things that affected me, Isobel. Stuff that couples are supposed to talk about."

Isobel laughed, incredulous. "We were never a couple, Bryan," she replied, shaking her head. "We were never anything. You were a free ride out of Elgin, you were a familiar face in Los Angeles. But we were never anything more than that."

Bryan moved closer to her, and Isobel continued to hold her ground. "You're lying," he said through clenched teeth. "We were together and we were happy and then you fucking ruined it by killing our baby."

"I had a clump of cells removed, because I didn't want a baby, much alone one with you," she shot back instantly. "And you just continue to prove that point over and over and over," she said, her voice growing thicker with tears. Bryan shook his head, disbelief growing over his face.

"So you want one with that bug eyed freak? Why, because he can afford you?"

"Shut up." She swung her briefcase at him, not wanting nor feeling the need to justify her actions to him any longer. Bryan caught it, easily, ripping it from her hands. He shoved it back into her stomach, hard, hitting her with one sharp corner and she could feel something there move when it probably shouldn't have. Her mouth dropped open, her hands clutching her lower belly as she glanced down at it. Bryan saw this and immediately knew what her worry was.

"You know, I'm glad I could help you out with this decision, Izzy," he said, hitting her hands again so her stomach was sucked into itself; she cried out, holding herself harder and taking a step away from him as if that would reverse what was happening. "Now you'll both get to know how I felt.

"And you know what? He's no fucking saint. He knew I've been following you since March. He tell you that?"

Isobel's arms were still wrapped around her stomach; but now her eyes were turned up to Bryan's, her brows drawn together in confusion.

"What?"

"Yup," he said, tossing her bag to the ground. "We had a chat right outside his office. He broke my nose again, can you believe it? You two are a fucking pair. Must've been fucking meant for each other." He took another step toward her, this time his hands balling into fists to complete the work he'd started with her bag. Reflex stepped in, and Isobel moved to defend herself. She was almost surprised at the muscle memory as she sank the heel of her shoe into his foot, brought her knee up into his solar plexus. Bryan was clearly surprised too as he bent over that sensitive area. She brought her knee up again, this time into his stomach, laying him out on the ground.

"I am done with this, Bryan. I am fucking done with you and your petty shit." Each word was punctuated by a kick to whatever area of his body she could reach; a shoulder, his chest, his stomach. She just kept kicking, unable to stop, unwilling to, finally glad to have somewhere to release months of built up tension and frustration. After a solid minute, she caught herself, eyes going wide. She took a step backward, hands going back to her midsection, knowing she needed to go to a hospital immediately. But there was only one place she could think of going, one person she needed answers from. If she'd wanted a reason to speak to Obed, she'd gotten it in the worst way possible. Hot tears limned her eyes again, and she carefully reached down to collect the briefcase Bryan had thrown to the side.

She pulled out her cell phone, watching him writhe on the ground with a grim satisfaction, and dialed the police. She had no intention of waiting around to make sure they collected him; he shouldn't have been there in the first place. Then she texted Obed, making sure he was at home, before moving to her car. One hand kept passing over her stomach, the thought that she'd gotten what she wanted in the long run twisting through her mind.

Isobel carefully tucked herself into her car and headed toward Pax, unsure of what was waiting for her there.