living_history (living_history) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-05-12 22:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 07, bridget mackenzie |
Week Seven - Saturday
Characters: Bridget & Peter
Location: Bridget's apartment
Summary: After his conversation with Cassidy, Peter checks up on Bridget and the two talk about the Colony and her worries.
Rating: none
After leaving Cassidy's rooms Peter wandered down the hallway, his feet idle even if his mind wasn't. He hadn't intended to get into any sort of philosophical conversations that evening, but it seemed he had been drawn into one anyway. Not by Cassidy's intentions - she seemed as uncomfortable with it as he had - but her general demeanor had certainly seemed to inspire it anyway. He hoped the young woman had found something helpful in it, or was at least a little further along the path to finding the answers she was looking for.
He pulled himself away from his thoughts and found himself standing in the corridor, facing a door. A check mental check showed that he hadn't made it back to his own suite, but instead had managed to find his way to Bridget's. He had only been the there once, walking her back after the Sunday meal, but apparently here he was again. He considered turning and leaving, but just as his feet had a mind of their own, so apparently did his hand. He knocked lightly on the door, not sure if he wouldn't be interrupting yet another nap by doing so.
Peter wasn't, but only because Bridget had roused herself off the couch a half hour earlier. She seemed to fall asleep at the drop of a hat these days when she put her feet up on the couch to read, not something that would have happened to her before she fell pregnant but considering her difficulties getting a full night's sleep these days it wasn't something she was too upset about.
She was just coming out into the main room after getting cleaned up and changing clothes when she heard the knock at her door. "Who on earth could that be?" Few people seemed to come by her suite without arranging it beforehand, let alone during the warmest part of the day.
The young woman made her way to the door and blinked in surprise at who was on the other side when she opened it. She hadn't seen Peter since the last group dinner, but she put a smile that was almost genuine on her face. "Peter, hello."
"Hello, Bridget," he greeted her, glad to see that he hadn't been disruptive for a second time that day. "I, ah, found myself in the area and thought I might stop in to see how you were. Is this a good time?"
"Of course," she stepped away from the door to let him pass through. "Please, come in."
Peter entered the suite, this time heading for the living area and taking a seat on the sofa. This all felt strangely familiar - he was no stranger to making housecalls to parishioners - and that in and of itself was odd. He looked slightly uncomfortable as he smoothed his hands over his knees, glancing up at Bridget. "I realized I haven't seen you around much this week - how have you been?"
Bridget raised an eyebrow at the query as she sat in the nearby chair she'd moved in from the spare room, but accepted the query as genuine. He was one of the few people to have asked her that since she arrived at the Suites, but then most people didn't want to get into the gritty details when they were hurting themselves. "I've had good days and bad days I guess. Keeping busy helps with that. I got a clean bill of health from Dr. Griffin the other day, other than my iron levels being a little low everything seems to be progressing as it should with the baby." She'd even gotten clothes that fit somewhat comfortably, and some for later on her pregnancy as well. She didn't really need maternity clothes yet, but larger sizes had been a must and now she wouldn't have to go scrounging around when she was too large for regular clothing a few weeks down the line.
The ex-clergyman nodded in agreement; keeping busy did help. Which was one of the reasons he was here, instead of back moping in his own suite. "I'm glad to hear it. It's extremely fortunate that there's not one but two doctors here to look after everybody. It must bring you some peace of mind to know that you've got that support."
"You have no idea," Bridget laughed a little at his statement, not in an unkind way but more of how much of an understatement his words were. "Two weeks ago I didn't even realize I was pregnant. Having not just one but two doctors here would be something I'd have called miraculous back when I still believed in such things."
Her reference to faith - or lack of it - piqued Peter's interest even as it flashed a large 'WARNING' sign at him, and he had to keep from inquiring directly about it. "I'm sure the community will be there for you as well," he said mildly instead, giving her a smile. "They are nothing if not giving and generous."
"It's a good group to be in," Bridget agreed easily. "They've all been very supportive so far, even if some of them think I'm nuts trying to build a library here. I can't help but want to try and preserve what I can, that's my real reason for putting so much effort into it."
"I can understand wanting to preserve the past - that's a very natural reaction to everything that's happened, I think," Peter replied, nodding. "And few people would be able to argue against the logic of it. I suppose I could see why they might wonder about the library, though - it does seem like a lot of work, especially when there are plenty of libraries and bookstores still in existence out there. Is it that you feel that something might happen to those books at some point, so that they won't be available to people anymore?"
"Books are fragile things," A bit of passion entered her voice at the topic. "Especially modern books made with wood pulp. If no one is around to take care of them they'll start degrading in a few years, assuming flood or fire don't get them first. Having a collection of them here means they can be protected. Eventually, if the population rises quickly enough, we can make more copies but that's a long way away. Part of it is a safety issue for us as well. The more things we have here on site the less danger we put ourselves in from having to go out raiding to find it later." Bridget shrugged, a bit self conscious about the whole thing. "I know Vegas is a big city and there aren't a lot of threats out there right now, but I've seen enough out on the road to know it won't stay that way forever and the better prepared we are the better chance we'll have of survival."
Peter appreciated the passionate tone she took - he had felt that way about certain subjects, once, and he felt almost jealous of Bridget that she still had something she felt that strongly about. "That makes sense," he said, just to show that he wasn't someone who thought she was crazy. "Although it seems with books being so fragile, wouldn't it be good to make sure there's some sort of... digital copy? I don't know very much about that sort of thing, but it seems like that would take care of the bulkiness issues, as well as the 'multiple copies' problem. It would all be dependent on having electricity to run it all, I know, but being able to amass and protect an entire library would be difficult as well."
Bridget deflated a bit at his question, though she was pleased he didn't seem to think she was crazy. "Our library isn't going to be anything like what you'd see at a library branch or university campus. It'll be much smaller than that, just one of the two bedroom suites downstairs. As for digital copies, that's what Google was trying to do for the last several years before the flu, make digital copies of just about every book and have it out there on the internet. It takes a lot of time to digitally scan a book, and the data can degrade over time as well even assuming the hardware was kept someplace with good temperature and humidity controls and had electricity to run it." She wasn't pouring cold water on his idea, just being realistic. "I'm just trying to save what I can now. Maybe later I can try and do more, assuming we get an opportunity." Her tone and expression indicated this didn't seem likely to her.
Peter wasn't completely convinced by her arguments - it seemed keeping books safe from bad conditions would be equally as risky as a server full of digital copies - but he could recognize the desire behind them, and didn't press the issue. "I'm sure there will be other opportunities," he reassured her. "After all, one thing we have been left with is plenty of time. Who knows what we might be able to accomplish in the coming years?"
"You never know," Bridget agreed. "One thing I do know is that my time is going to be a lot more precious in another thirty weeks or so, assuming I carry the baby to term." Which she devoutly hoped to do, being the one piece of Jake she had left. As for the future, who knew? It probably wouldn't be her only child, she realized that, but the idea of being with another man was something she couldn't quite bring herself to contemplate yet without feeling guilty about it. Jake had only been gone a matter of weeks, it wasn't right to be thinking of other men yet.
"Time is always precious," Peter said thoughtfully, "but yes, I can understand your desire to complete as much of this project as you can before that happens."
Bridget nodded, then realized how poor of a hostess she had been. "Here we've been going on all this time and I didn't offer you anything to drink! Are you thirsty? I've got cold water in the refrigerator." Not to mention reconstituted powdered milk, but she was keeping that for herself even though she didn't care for the taste. She needed all the calcium she could get.
"Water would be great, thank you." Peter made a mental note that he really ought to be keeping some sort of shareable substance in his suite for guests - not that he had had any guests, but just in case. "I'm not used to such a hot climate - even with the air conditioning it can get to you, especially when you've been working outdoors."
"I'm not either." Bridget stood and quickly went to get him a glass of water. "I'll be happy when it cools down, fall here will be what I'm used to during the summer back home."
"Where is back home?" the ex-clergyman asked curiously. He was curious to know how far she was from her roots - and how she had ended up here.
"Pennsylvania, just to the east of the mountains." Bridget replied, bringing back two glasses and handing one to him. "Jake...it was his idea to come out west, because of the dam."
Jake... that must be her husband, Peter thought, nodding thoughtfully. "It seems like a good idea. I can't speak for everywhere else, obviously, but the fact that we have electricity still is a blessing. Things would be far more difficult if we didn't."
"I wanted to stay in Pennsylvania, just hide out in the national forest until the worst of the die-off was over." Bridget sat back down in the chair and turned the glass around in her hands. "I didn't want to leave someplace lush and green for the desert, but he convinced me that it was smarter to come here." And she hadn't been willing to leave her husband then, as Jake had been dead set on coming to Vegas.
"Well, you have found a community," Peter pointed out, lifting his glass for a sip. "Finding like-minded people is not an easy task in times like this - I'm sure there are many people here who would attest to that. At least you know you have a safe environment in which to raise your child."
Bridget realized that it must sound like she was complaining, and in a way maybe she was. Jake had gotten her pregnant and then died on her, or at least she had to assume he was dead as she hadn't seen any sign of him since the day they'd been parted. Either way, he was gone and she was pregnant out in the middle of the godforsaken desert. "You're right of course," she took a sip of her water. "This is a remarkable group and I'm lucky to have fallen in with them. I'm just..." the young woman shrugged, "I guess I'm just feeling a little blue."
"That's certainly understandable. It's easy to feel very alone, even among a community like this." Peter gave Bridget a sympathetic look, his words perhaps full of more meaning than he had intended. "Is there anything I can do for you? To help, or... anything, really."
It was a very kind offer, and Bridget couldn't help but wonder if she'd met him someplace before Las Vegas, his personality seemed so familiar as if she'd known him or someone like him for a long time. "I don't know." Help of the the physical kind wasn't something she really needed yet aside from the book project. But Peter seemed to have a knack for getting her to open up more than she would to most people these days. "I don't suppose you can wake me out of this nightmare we seem to be in?"
"I'm afraid I wouldn't know how to do that," Peter said with a shake of his head. If he could, wouldn't he have done it for himself already? "But I can reassure you that you're certainly not alone. None of us are. What is it that you find hardest, Bridget?"
"Honestly?" Bridget shook her head, the uncertainty clear on her face. "I'm not sure where to begin."
"Perhaps you need some time to think about it. That's alright," he said reassuringly. "We don't have to talk about this right now. Just know that if - when you want to talk about it, you can."
"I will, thanks." the young woman forced a smile. "I appreciate you letting me vent as it is."
"Everybody needs to have a safe space they can express themselves in. If it helps you then it's the least I can do."
"But you're going out of your way to do that," Bridget still wasn't sure why he was doing it, but the man didn't seem to have any ulterior motives. "Even the other day you had to come looking for me."
Peter smiled and gave a small shrug, looking almost bashful. "I suppose I can be over-zealous. I'm sorry if I've bothered you or made you feel uncomfortable. I promise that wasn't my intention."
"No," Bridget's tone was thoughtful. "If anything it's more of a comforting feeling. Thank you for checking on me, I appreciate it."
"Of course." Peter finished his water, setting down his glass and smoothing his hands over his knees. "I'll get out of your hair now, though. Will I see you at the group meal tomorrow?"
"You will." Bridget nodded. "I'll be there, assuming my stomach cooperates." She smiled wryly and shrugged. "Thanks for coming by Peter."