Re: Mean-Eyed Cat: Cat & "Leena"
Cat wanted very badly to tell her that, no, mom's side didn't have anyone named Leena in it. She wanted to, but she refrained. Looking at Helena made her think of Dickie. Dickie, who thought some false life, one where he lived in Texas and had a wife and kid, was real. She didn't see any spark of recognition in her daughter's eyes. More than that? She didn't see any hate.
And Cat? Cat wasn't stupid. She knew she was caught in a proverbial Catch-22. Damned if she did, and damned if she didn't, and telling Helena who she was? That wasn't likely to go well. But the truth always came out, didn't it? And Helena, the Helena she knew, would hate things being kept from her. Cat could wait. She could talk to Bruce first, and that would probably be the wise thing, wouldn't it? But here, like this, with Helena regarding her without hatred in her eyes, here Cat thought it might be alright if she just said the words, told Helena the truth.
Almost, because Cat? She wasn't that optimistic, and she wasn't that hopeful.
"The mist wasn't terrible for some people. For others?" Cat lifted her shoulders, shrugged, as if to say well... "But you made it through the locked doors and windows alright?" Casual. "Was it bad wherever you live? They say it was worse near the highway," and she was absolutely fishing for information. She could go back later, read everything Leena had written publicly on the forums, but she wasn't going to waste the opportunity before her.
After all? Short of following her, Cat had no way of knowing when she'd see Helena again. It almost made her duck into the back and call Bruce right then. But she refrained.
"She shows up on the computer screens every so often, and she posts on the forums every so often. Mostly asking for help, saying she's locked away somewhere. I suspect she's one of the girls they're still combing the woods for," Cat said truthfully. With Grant gone, the project to find out what was happening in the science facility had slightly derailed. A temporary situation, since Eddie was getting her a job there next week, but it meant she wasn't actually sure who the girl in the computer was, not specifically.
She took a deep breath, and she poured herself a drink, a strong one. Well? Now or never. "If I think you remind me of someone, would you want to know who?"