Characters: Zoé and Cass Location: Mostly Zoé's apartment Summary: Cass joins Zoé for dinner at her apartment. Zoé fails to get much out of Cass about her background or aspirations, but the pair have a pleasant enough afternoon, and make plans to rendezvous again before reconnecting with the museum group. Rating: R for restrained and L for low-key.
Despite the fact that the unsuccessful search had obviously been disappointing for everyone involved (and Jed especially), Zoé couldn't feel too down-hearted about the whole thing. She had met two more people still living in Las Vegas, which doubled the number of nice people she knew of, and gave her plenty of hope for finding more. Now she was back in the gray sedan Cass had 'borrowed' the day before, heading back to her apartment off the Strip. She was still in a great mood from the day's events and couldn't wait to find out what the other woman thought about what they had experienced.
Cass seemed reserved - almost moreso than before - as they drove, and had barely spoken the whole route home; although she hadn't been rude, she hadn't initiated any conversation, and had given rather short answers to Zoé's questions so far in a distracted tone, her eyes fixed on the road in front of her as though driving was taking all of her concentration.
Finally Zoé couldn't take it any longer; she had to know what was going on. "Cass," she said conversationally, turning to lean against the handle of the door so she could watch the other woman more closely, "is something wrong?"
Cass glanced over briefly, her eyebrows raised in surprise, before looking back to the road ahead. "No, not at all. I mean, not particularly," she qualified. "I was just... lost in thought. Sorry."
"That is alright," the brunette said amicably. "What are you thinking of?"
There was another pause as Cass considered how to answer this. "I suppose I'm thinking about Alice and Jed, and the missing girl."
"Alice and Jed are very nice," Zoé replied, as if the other woman had actually asked her opinion on the matter. "Alice is perhaps a little shy, but I think she has a good heart. And Jed... he has a good heart as well. It is too bad we did not find her. Jack. I hope she will come back soon, and safe."
"Mm. God, imagine trying to keep tabs on a kid in a place like this. Particularly when it's not even your kid, so they're not just gonna do what you say, you know?" Cass tutted a little, and then sighed, shrugging her shoulders a little before rolling them back into the seat behind her, shifting her stance a little in the seat to prevent herself from getting stiff - more out of habit than anything else, since obviously they wouldn't be driving long on this occasion.
"I do not think that because you are the parents of a child they will do what you say," Zoé observed. "When I was young I did not obey my parents very often. Is your neck sore? I will be happy to massage it if you want."
"What? Oh, no, no. It's just a reflex - when I'm going long distances I have to make sure I stay... er, loose."
Zoé raised her eyebrows. "I think you should let me. I am very good at massage - it is something I used to do all the time, for my friends. We would often get sore because of our performing. You have been so kind to me, driving me to the meeting and protecting me. I would like to give you something for that."
"I'm really okay," Cass said, her tone decisive. "I don't have any neck problems. I'm very careful not to let myself get stiff."
"That is good. It is important to give attention to the body, t'sais?" Zoé fell silent for a moment, her gaze drifting distractedly over the other woman's arms and torso before realizing she had let the conversation stall. "But what did you think of them? I mean Alice, and Jed. Do you think what they are doing is good?"
"Oh, uh..." Cass pursed her lips in thought for a moment, trying to put her meandering thoughts into words. "Well, I think they're very sincere. And I'm sure that they mean well. But they don't seem to really know what they want from those meetings they've set up. Maybe that's good - keeping things informal, just establishing contact for now. I don't know."
"It is a strange thing to imagine, to start a community from nothing. I do not think I would know what to do to do that. But we are all lonely, and we come together because... I do not know why. Perhaps people must."
"Perhaps." Cass didn't sound convinced.
"But more is always better. It is good we have found them, now." Zoé smiled happily. "And we can help, with the meetings and in other things. We will be a team, and work together, and things will be easier that way, t'sais?"
Cass didn't answer right away. Did she want to stay and help? That hadn't been the plan, certainly. The plan had been to get back up North, somewhere with milder weather, somewhere with more grocery stores and fewer casinos. If this meeting had been a bust, she'd have offered to take Zoé wherever she liked - even drive her back up home if she wanted. But now that it hadn't been - not entirely, anyway - did that mean she was sticking around? She had certainly told Alice as much, but did Alice speak for everyone? "I don't know," she said eventually. "I mean, I don't know if I'll be needed."
Zoé looked comically astonished at the very suggestion. "Do not be silly, Cassidy! Of course you will be needed - you have yourself said that they are not very organized. And I can tell already that you are a very organized person. You will certainly be able to help there. And you must have many other skills that will be useful. Like driving a truck - not everyone can do that. And fixing things. There is always need for people to do that."
There was another longish pause. "Maybe," Cass said in the end, after something of an internal battle. "I guess we'll have to see."
"Bien!" Zoé was apparently taking this as a commitment from the other woman; at least, she didn't press her any further on it. "I am glad. I would miss you if you went away now."
Cass's mouth twitched a little in amusement. "Made an impression, have I?" she said, sounding highly doubtful. Then she added. "Well, I'm sure there'll be plenty of people to keep you company soon enough. There must be a few still kicking around Vegas what with it having independent power."
"You do not get more friends by abandoning the ones you have... I will be happy to meet more, but I will also be glad to keep the ones I have, t'sais? They are as important as clean water, or food, or electricity."
"There speaks a woman who has yet to go without clean water, food or electricity."
"I would rather go without those things than be alone again," Zoé said solemnly. There was something in her voice that said she meant it.
Cass shot a doubtful look out of the window in front of her, but said no more on the topic. "So am I taking you home?" she asked, "Or do you need to stop for dinner somewhere?" Her tone suggested a certain level of amusement with Zoé's apparent habit of not 'shopping' particularly far ahead.
"Ehm..." Zoé tipped her head from side to side, considering this question with perhaps more gravity than it deserved. "I have food to eat at home," she pronounced finally. "Enough for two, I think. Would you like to join me for dinner?"
The blonde seemed to consider this. She still had tuning to do on her rig. But perhaps it could wait? It had been a while since she'd had company and she wasn't necessarily dying to go back to her solitary work. "Sure," she said eventually.
"Bien! But I must warn you, it has been a long time that I have had guests. My apartment may be a little messy..."
Zoé had not been kidding - her apartment was a state. She let them in with a key, bidding Cass wait in the entryway while she did a quick sweep of the place. From where she stood the blonde woman could see the sitting room, which was cluttered with various pieces of furniture, workout equipment, clothes, and other objects. There were no suspicious odors or things scuttling about the floorboards, but it was clear that Zoé was not the tidiest person in the world. She stuck her head back into the foyer after a few moments and grinned at Cass, beckoning her into the rest of the apartment. It was decorated - if one could call it that - with various exotic throws over the threadbare sofas, theatrical props including several authentic-looking Venetian masks on the bookcase, and postcards stucks up randomly over the walls (perhaps hiding water spots, cracks, or other imperfections, as this certainly wasn't the most expensive apartment block). "Welcome to my humble abode," she said, clearly quoting something she had heard on television (though Cass couldn't see one in the cramped main room).
Cass nodded, following Zoé and sitting where she gestured. "Um, it's really... colourful," she offered politely.
"Oui, I know. My friends used to live here with me - they were performers too. We did not have very much money." Zoé gestured with a hand at the well-worn chairs and sofas. "Maybe now I could find new things, if I wanted. But there does not seem to be a reason to do that, really, t'sais? You are the first person to visit; I have not had many people to want to impress."
The other woman smirked a little. "And I would doubt you feel any particular need to impress me," she said. She relaxed back in the sofa a little - after driving around in the heat of the day she was glad to be out of the car and inside this comparatively cooler space.
"You did not give me much warning, chérie," Zoé pointed out, perching on the arm of the sofa and grinning down at Cass. "If you would like to sit here with your eyes closed I will go out and steal a new chair for you."
"No, no, not at all - I've been living in a truck for months, you're doing just fine as you are." Cass rolled her shoulders back into the sofa as she had before in the car, tipping her head back and closing her eyes. "Hell of a day, huh?"
"It was very interesting," Zoé agreed. She had the overwhelming urge to scoot over and start rubbing Cass's neck despite her earlier refusal, but figured the trucker might take offense at that. Mais elle semble tendue... je voudrais l'aider à détendre. With a sigh she hopped up, lifting one leg to the back of the sofa and leaning down to stretch it. "You have spent more time with Alice... how is she like?"
"She's... quiet. Seems sensible enough." Cass sighed a little. "I think she's a decent human being, though. Seems like they both mean well."
"Oui, you are right, I think. Even if they are not sure what they are doing. But everything must start somewhere, t'sais? I think we are at the beginning of something exciting." The acrobat grinned and switched legs, leaning down until she was looking up at Cass from beneath her knee. "Perhaps we will start our own new city."
Cass opened her eyes, and they widened slightly as she took in the position of the woman in front of her. "I dunno. Maybe we don't need cities any more."
"Why would we not? There are less of us, true, but we are still human."
"Cities let this happen," Cass murmured. "Industrialisation, filling our lives with crime and pollution to make us wrap our children in cotton wool and hide them from filth and harm and infection, pharmaceuticals training viruses to be more and more resistent to every successive disease until eventually one comes along that we can't control, and there we are in our cities, sardines in a can, just waiting for it." She shook her head, more to clear it than to emphasise her point. "Sorry. I think we're well rid of cities."
Zoé was slightly surprised; this was probably the most Cass had spoken at one time since she had met her. Not only that, but it was considerably more... poetic than she had come to expect from the trucker. "Then what is left for us?" she asked, straightening up and giving Cass a curious, and slightly probing, look.
Cass lifted her head a little to look properly at her. She shrugged. "No clue. But we need to think smaller."
"Une villette, then," Zoé replied with a smirk, linking her hands together and stretching her arms over her head. "Some kind of community where we can all be together."
"Sure, why not. I'm not saying we shouldn't have communities. I just think that we shouldn't try to hang onto things that in the end maybe aren't the best thing for us."
"I am agreed. I think we should get rid of clothes," the Canadian said decisively, dropping her hands to her sides. "Who thinks they are such a good idea, anyway?"
"Uh..."
Zoé observed Cass with an amused expression for a moment before shrugging. "Maybe they are not as easy to be rid of as cities. Tant pis."
"Maybe not. We've been wearing clothes a little longer than we've had cities," Cass said, attempting to share in Zoé's easy amusement and almost succeeding - at least, that fleeting expression of discomfort had passed. "And people in villages still wear them."
"Not all the villages, I am sure. And when it is as hot outside as it is here, sometimes I think they have a good idea." She dropped her gaze to the light workout clothes she wore; she had already changed at least once today after her daily exercises, and certainly would have to again before nighttime. "What are some other things you would like to disappear?" she asked then, moving to the small kitchen area and opening several cupboards, though she still glanced back over her shoulder at Cass as she spoke.
"God, where do I start?" Cass said, spreading her arms wide to sling them over the back of the couch. "It's not that simple, though. The issue is that without all the nasty, irritating things that life had, all the politics and paperwork and waiting times, we couldn't have so many of the things that made life so exciting. Sadly we don't get one without the other. At least, not long-term."
"You did not answer the question," Zoé pointed out, grinning at Cass as she filled a pot with water and stuck it on the stove to boil.
"You caught that, huh?"
"That is alright, though. You do not have to answer if you do not want to." Sprinkling a little salt into the water, Zoé then moved on to opening several tins of tomato purée and dumping them into a bowl next to the sink. "If you like instead you can tell me more things about you. I would like to hear all the facts."
"Not much to tell, really," Cass said. "Particularly when you stick to the facts. I drive around, I do my thing."
"When did you begin driving trucks for your job?"
"Few years back."
"Why?"
Cass said nothing for a bit. When her answer came even a non-native speaker could tell it was carefully formulated. "I enjoy my own company, I like driving, and I like engines."
Zoé knew when not to press things, and it was pretty obvious that this was one of those times. If Cass didn't want to share, well, then she could be patient. "D'accord. Do you like fish?"
"I'm not picky."
"That is a good thing."
The ate their meal of pasta with tomato sauce and canned tuna in a comfortable silence, Zoé apparently less keen to fill every silence when there was food on the table - or rather, on their laps as they sat side by side on the battered sofa. She had gotten them both fresh bottles of water, the contents of which were rapidly drained through the meal. Once Zoé had finished (after scraping every little scrap of food up with her fork and licking it clean) she hopped up to begin rinsing off the dishes, at least acknowledging cleanliness, if not embracing it.
Cass relaxed back into the sofa again, realising it would be a little laughable to offer help in the tiny kitchen area. She looked around the room again, taking in the little details that had escaped her notice on her first sweep - like the many pictures, both framed and merely tacked up on the walls, that showed Zoé and her friends, mostly laughing or smiling, their arms wound around one another. In some of them they still wore the exaggerated makeup from their performances, in others they were in street clothes, the lights of Vegas usually bright behind them. There weren't many books scattered about, but there was a plenitude of CD's of a wide variety of genres and languages. Cass smiled a little to herself - at least they had a wide taste in music in common, although she doubted there was an awful lot of overlap.
"Would you like a dessert?" Zoé called, rummaging in the cupboards once again.
Cass remembered Zoé's eating habits from the day before. She smiled a little, and shook her head. "Thanks, but I'll pass," she said. "I don't really do sweet stuff."
"I am sure you are sweet enough already," the other woman said with a grin, pulling out a packet of SnoBalls and ripping open the slippery plastic.
"I dunno about that. But I don't want to end up needing a dentist at a time like this."
Zoé merely tipped her head consideringly at this, already munching on the first of the snack cakes as she came to plop down on the couch again next to Cass. "So you do not think dentists are something the human race can live without?" she asked, harking back to their earlier conversation.
Cass smirked a little at this. "I think that before we had dentists, we also ate a lot less sugar."
"Perhaps. But now we have toothbrushes."
"Nonetheless, I don't like candy enough to take my chances," Cass said with a shrug.
"If it is not candy, then what is your weakness?" Zoé asked eagerly, turning sideways on the sofa and gazing at Cass. "What is the thing you cannot do without? Or things - perhaps there is more than just one."
"Well, everyone has their weaknesses," Cass said vaguely. "But... I don't know. I like time to myself, music, clear roads, something to occupy my mind... I don't think it takes too much to make me..." Happy? When were you last happy? "Content."
"Ah, but a weakness is not only what makes you content. It it something more than that. Almost a... vice," Zoé said after searching for the word for a second. "It is the thing you do that you know you should not because it is bad for you. But you do it anyway."
"Ah..." The other woman chuckled a little, shaking her head. "I've gave those things up a long time ago."
"Oh." Zoé looked slightly disappointed; whether she had been hoping for some deep, dark revelation or merely some girly gossip, this certainly wasn't it. Cass was an easy person to talk to, but getting talk back... that was the hard part. "There is plenty of time to find new ones, at least," she said optimistically, cracking her knuckles one by one as she leaned back against the arm of the couch. "And not many people to tell you not to."
"True enough, I guess," Cass said, although her tone suggested that she was unlikely to take on this suggestion.
"Would you like anything more? Another water?"
"I'm good, thanks. Actually, I should probably be getting back..."
"Oh." Zoé's expression was crestfallen now; she was enjoying Cass's company and the idea of being alone after having just started to hang out was disappointing. "D'accord, if you must go."
Pushing to her feet, Cass ran her hands down her thighs to smooth her pants, checking her pockets automatically for her ever-present bottle of water. She retrieved her gun from where it rested against the arm of the couch (largely because she didn't want to leave it in the car rather than due to any fear of being attacked between it and Zoé's apartment. "Thank you very much for dinner," she said. "It was very nice. Will you be wanting to attend another meeting soon? Would you like me to pick you up?"
She was about to reply in the negative - she felt reasonably sure she could find the museum on her own, and if she got some kind of transportation of her own she could go whenever she liked, but then she caught herself. "Oui, that would be very nice," she said with a nod and a grateful smile. "I would like to go back whenever you can take me."
"Should we say, I don't know, Friday?" Cass suggested tentatively, finding herself hesitant to propose a sooner day for some reason. Although why I wouldn't want to seem to keen to spend time with other people is beyond me...
"You must be very busy," Zoé commented, raising an eyebrow. "D'accord, Friday we will go."
"Well, I could come and check on you during the week if you like," the blonde offered hurriedly, realising too late that she'd overcompensated a little.
"It would always be very nice to see you. I will try to find some more food for a better meal if you come back."
"Okay. Well. When works for you?"
"I would like you to come on Wednesday," Zoé said, picking a day in the middle of the week so that she wouldn't have to go too long without seeing anyone.
Cass had half expected Zoé, in her general exuberance, to pick the next day rather than the day after that. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed but favoured the girl with a polite smile nonetheless. "That sounds good. I'll come round about lunchtime, and I'll bring food."
"Bien!" Zoé stood and walked Cass back towards the door, only opening it at the last second to let the other woman out and a gust of overheated air in. "Merci, Cass, for all your help. I am very grateful," she said, leaning on the doorframe.
"I'll... see you soon," Cass said somewhat gruffly, with a nod of acknowledgment.