living_history (living_history) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-06-24 18:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 09, bridget mackenzie, molly williams, | bridget and molly |
Week Nine - Thursday
Characters: Bridget and Molly
Location: Siena Suites, Library
Summary: Molly comes to the library looking for Searle but finds Bridget instead.
Rating: PG
Bridget wasn’t exactly hiding. The library was her idea after all: she’d proposed it, she’d been the one to figure out where to go to get the books, she’d organized the raids and helped shelve the books once they had them. It only made sense for her to look after it.
But the truth was she really didn’t feel up to doing much else today. Morning sickness seemed to be starting to let up a bit, but she was feeling especially fatigued and planting herself in the library sounded better than hanging out in her suite. At least she could rest on one of the couches in the library rather than stay in bed all day. So the young woman had come down, done a little light cleaning, and then planted herself on the couch.
Molly arrived at the Suites and took a look around, not seeing Searle she sighed a little and stuffed her hands into her pockets. She wasn’t entirely sure where she should go and look for him other than his room, and so she found herself wandering around the place. She was in a section that she wasn’t quite familiar with, and stopped at the sight of a screen door with a door propped open behind it.
“Searle, are you in here?” She questioned, pulling the screen door open and pushing her head inside. After a quick glance she spotted Bridget. “Oh hi. How are you?” She greeted her flashing her a smile and stepping into the room fully.
“Hello Molly!” Bridget smiled back at the teenager and put down the book she’d been reading. It was a copy of the same text she’d assigned Searle. Since it had been some time since she’d read it herself Bridget figured she’d better read it again so she could discuss it intelligently. “I’m fine, a little fatigued but that’s par for the course at this stage of things. How are you? I’m glad to see you coming around.”
“Oh! So you are preggo.” She said before she could stop herself, chuckling a little when she realized how off that sounded. “Well, all I meant was that I thought you were, but I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t really know for sure.” She shrugged her shoulders and hesitated a second, “Do you know if its a boy or a girl?”
“Not yet,” Bridget patted the small bulge with a smile. “It’s a little too soon for that yet. Maybe in another month or so, and I may just want to be surprised.”
Molly nodded, she really didn’t know a whole lot about pregnancies, she had never really been around expecting mothers. “That’s cool I guess. Searle told me you had a couple of doctors around here, so I guess that’s good. Is the father someone around here or...?” She stopped, she didn’t mean for it to be an upsetting question, she was just really curious.
Bridget’s smile faded and was replaced with a pained expression. “No,” her response was quiet, so quiet the teen had to strain to hear her. “No, he’s not around. My husband and I were split up a few weeks before I made it to Vegas.” And hadn’t seen any sign of him since. Jake was almost certainly dead, she couldn’t imagine him not making it here by now. She wasn’t sure why she put such emphasis on the fact she’d been married, but it seemed important to do so.
Molly regretted asking the question the moment she saw the look on Bridget’s face. She frowned too, and listened to the story as she settled herself down on the ground where she had been standing. “That really sucks.” Molly said slowly, “The not knowing what happened is the worst. I mean, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my dad is dead, but I have no idea what happened to my brother, or this guy Seth who I was traveling with before I met Drew. They’re probably both dead and all, but the fact is that you think about it more when you don’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I talk too much sometimes, you can just tell me to hush if you want.”
At first Bridget was going to tell her just that. The way Molly had gone on had ripped open a mental wound that was only just starting to scab over, and she’d closed her eyes briefly against the flow of words. But then then Molly had mentioned the fact that she didn’t know what had happened to her brother or other traveller, and Bridget opened her eyes again to nod reluctantly. “It is the worst. I know there would be nothing that could stop Jake from coming here if he were still alive, but I’ll probably never know for sure.”
She let out a mirthless laugh, almost bitter. “He wanted to be a father, we both wanted kids, but we’d planned to wait a few years to let me get more established in my career first. Then the flu happened and we were on the road...” She trailed off, one hand resting on the small bulge of her abdomen.
“I wish I could say the same, say that if my brother were still alive that he’d come looking for me here, but he has no idea where I am. We lived in Maine. My brother went to Southern California for College, and thats where I was heading before getting stuck here.” She said with a shrug, “Seth was going with me, he was just some guy I met during the evacuation, he said he would come find me after I got away. I... Im pretty sure he’s dead.” She frowned as she thought about it. She really did miss her brother and she constantly thought about going to go check, but she found herself too comfortable where she was, and too afraid of what she’d find.
“I’m sure they’d both want you to be safe.” Bridget had endured about as much of this topic as she could handle without breaking down and crying her eyes out, so it was time to change the subject. “Have you and Drew given any more thought to come to live with us here?”
Molly nodded, it was clear that Bridget didn’t want to talk about it and so she welcomed the change in topic. Unfortunately this topic wasn’t much better, she still wasn’t sure how to classify her experience with Leo, or what she should even say about it. “Umm... I don’t know.” She said, busying herself with picking at her jeans for no apparent reason.
Bridget frowned, something wasn’t quite right. Molly’s body language screamed being uncomfortable with the topic. “What’s wrong?” Maybe she’d had a run in with another of the members of the Colony, it wouldn’t be so surprising that tempers could flare or the wrong words said.
“I don’t know.” She admitted, and it wasn’t too far from the truth, she felt a lot of uncertainty when she thought about her opinion of Leo. He had seemed like such a nice guy, but then she had seen his tattoo, his brand that he had done horrible things and quickly saw how scary he could become. “Just... having trouble getting some sense of the people here I guess.”
“Some of the people can be a little prickly sometimes,” Bridget wasn’t sure what had happened but it was clear something had. “Everyone’s been nice to me for the most part, and I’ve been here over a month now. Did you have a run-in with someone? Maybe I can help.”
“What do you know ‘bout Leo?” Molly questioned with a frown. “I mean, one minute he seems nice enough, he seemed really nice actually. Then you realize that he’s... well, not.” She finished in a flat manner. She was afraid of him, who knew where he could be lurking, if he would hurt her for bringing it up to someone else. Subconsciously, Molly made crumpled into herself, making herself look smaller as her eyes carefully scanned the room.
“Leo?” Bridget’s frown deepened. Had he hurt the girl? Tried to take advantage of her? It seemed preposterous but how much did she know about him? “Alice seems to trust him, and he’s always been nothing but nice to me, but I can’t say I know him well. What happened?”
“Well...” Molly said slowly, looking around once more just in case, before leaning in towards Bridget, “there is this group of people called the Sevens, they do... they do bad things. Like raping and killing bad. And once you’re a member, they put this little mark on your wrist of a seven. Well, Leo was driving me back to the University, cause he didn’t think it was smart for me to ride my bike back and I noticed he had one and I asked him about it and he got real mad. Shouting mad and he stopped his truck and practically threw my bike out and he was just yelling and yelling.” Molly shuddered a little, obviously put off by the mans actions.
Bridget’s mouth hung open at the declaration. Leo? A member of some band of thugs? It was hard to believe, given how he doted on and cared for Walker. But Molly had no reason to lie. “I don’t know what to say.” She finally told the girl. “I believe you when you say what you saw and what happened, but...” A shrug. “He’s never acted that way around anyone before, but this is the first I’ve heard about the Sevens.”
Molly found that she really couldn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure if Bridget really believed her or not, but it seemed like she did. “I guess... it could just be a coincidence, the tattoo, but he got so angry.” Molly shrugged, she felt a little uneasy about the whole thing. “I don’t know... I heard the whole thing from Derek, and he doesn’t have any reason to lie about a group like that.”
“No, I don’t suppose he would.” Bridget frowned thoughtfully, trying to square the image of an angry Leo kicking a teenage girl out of his vehicle with what she’d seen of the man and couldn’t do it. “I’ll talk to Alice about it and see what she knows. We’ll get to the bottom of this and figure out what’s going on with him. That sort of thing can’t be tolerated.”
“No!” Molly said with a frown, “I mean, I told him I wouldn’t tell anyone and I don’t want to make him any angry.”
“Molly, we can’t not talk with him about this,” Bridget told the girl mulishly. That behavior couldn’t be tolerated from a member of the Colony. “If he’s done this with you what’s to say he won’t do something worse to someone else? We need to get all this out in the open and find out what’s going on with him.” She wasn’t about to tolerate the idea of a potential traitor in their midst, it had to be settled and soon.
“It wasn’t that bad.” Molly said with a frown, “It’s not like he killed anyone. Just... angry. Made me get out of the car.” She rolled her shoulders. “If he gets in trouble, he’s just going to get more angry.”
“And I’m imagining all the things that could have happened after he kicked you out of the car.” This was something she just couldn’t let go. All the older survivors had a duty to look after the younger ones, and if Leo had done what Molly said he had then the man needed a serious talking to.
“Whatever.” Molly said after a moment, shrugging her shoulders again. She just wanted to forget about it really, not cause any waves. “I should probably go see if I can find Searle.” She said with a nod. Standing up. She flashed a small smile at Bridget, “Talk to you later.”