i_atetheapple All roads lead to... [Kaylee]
Snow White hadn't been back to The Farm in a while. Not since that crazy communist Goldilocks had shot a bullet into her skull and destroyed half of her brain. She loved the farm, and really wished that she'd been able to visit more often during the last few months. But she hadn't. Mostly, that was because she'd needed time to grow that brain back, and heal properly, and then it'd taken a few months before Bigby would even let her outside the Woodlands building, let alone get behind the wheel of a car.
But once she'd passed every fitness test that Dr Swineheart and Bigby could muster up, they'd found little that they could stop her from doing. They both knew that Snow was a fairly sensible girl who knew her own limits. She wouldn't do anything that she knew would be too exerting. There'd been offers to drive her out to the farm, and although Snow did appreciate the offer, Boy Blue would be needed in her absence, and she would be fine. She'd take a cell phone with her, so that if she ran into any problems at all, she could call either The Farm, or The Woodlands, whichever she was closest too, and help would be on its way.
It all turned out to be useless mollycoddling, in Snow's opinion. The drive was an easy drive, and soon enough, she was turning down the driveway that would take her directly to the farm.
Five minutes down the road, the harsh gravel and dirt turned into smooth steady bitumen, and the thick forest around her became thick office buildings. It'd happened gradually and instantly, in a strange paradox of weird. Snow frowned. She hadn't made a wrong turn, she was sure of it. Unless messing up directions was a weird side affect of brain-damage that Dr Swineheart had missed.
She hopped out of the truck, fetching her walking cane from the back seat. She leaned heavily on it, and looked about. She didn't see any sign posts saying where she was. Snow hobbled around a little, using the cane to take the weight off her bad leg.
She walked up and down the streets for a bit, trying to get a feel for exactly where she was. But after some exploration of this new City there was only one thing that she knew for sure. She definitely wasn't at the farm. Other than that. She was stumped. There were no 'New York Pizzarias' only 'The City Pizzaria', there was nothing around the place that told her where she was at all, and all this walking (or hobbling) was making her tired. Sure, she was healed and all, but she was still recovering, and the exertion of walking around the city all day, without anything to eat or drink, well it tired a girl out.
Where had she put her car? She could've sworn she'd parked it next to that red brick building over there... Nope. Not her car.
"Shit." She swore underneath her breath. She was tired, hungry, missing her car, and in a foreign city. Bigby wouldn't let her out of the woodlands for months after this incident. That was, of course, once she managed to find her car. Current Mood: anxious
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 19:10:48
The delivery truck at the diner was propped up on concrete blocks, the hood sticking just out of the alleyway behind the diner. Kaylee was on a rolling board underneath, fixing the driveshaft connector-thing. These land vehicles were very different from spacecraft. Even hovercraft. It was kind of like the mule, though. The old mule.
Craning her neck back so she could peek from under the front fender, she saw someone's feet, plus the bottom of a cane, on the sidewalk just in front of the delivery truck. When the lady swore, Kaylee had a hunch this was another person lost.
"Need some help?" she called out, still under the truck.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 19:19:05
Snow furrowed her brow a little. Where had that voice come from? She twisted around, looking for the girl who'd spoken.
Oh. She was under the truck. Snow bent down carefully, leaning a little more heavily on the cane so that she could stay balanced. "I can't remember where I parked my car." She explained, trying to discern exactly who it was she was speaking to, but the girl was shrowded in shadows by the truck.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 19:26:22
Kaylee reached forward and rolled out from underneath the truck and looked up at the lady, smiling. "Well, what's it look like?"
Standing up, Kaylee brushed off some of the rusty dust from her jumpsuit and wiped the back of her hand across her cheek, trying to get a clump of hair out of her eyes. All that did was put a huge streak of grease on her cheek.
Hands on hips, Kaylee scanned up and down the street where the alley came out on and then back to the lady. "My name's Kaylee, by the way." Rubbing a dirty hand on her jumpsuit, it felt kind of clean, but really wasn't. She held it out in greeting to the lady.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 19:35:29
"Snow." She said, taking the hand and giving it a firm shake despite how dirty it was. She wasn't one to shy away from someone just because they were covered in a little grease.
"It's a silver SUV." She explained, wishing that she actually knew more about cars so that she could give a better description. "I got a little lost, so I parked it and went for a walk to see if I could find someone to give me directions, but it seems I just made things worse."
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 19:42:56
"Nice to meet you, Snow," Kaylee chirped. She always liked meeting new people.
She was slightly confused as to what an "SUV" was, but she'd help anyway.
"Hm." Shielding her eyes with one hand and glacing up and down the street again, Kaylee didn't see one around. "Is it around the corner maybe?" Kaylee pointed down towards the corner just north of the alleyway.
"I can go look for you, if you like." She had noticed the lady's walking stick.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 19:50:55
"I had a look there," Snow shrugged, taking a few steps toward the corner, tilting her head to the side. "I wouldn't want you to go to all that trouble, though. If you know where there is a phone I could use?"
Bigby would probably have a few choice words with her if she called him. So she'd call Boy Blue instead. He was much more considerate and understanding, and tended to lecture far less than her Sheriff.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 19:57:46
"A phone?" Brief moment of a blank look. "OH! A phone! Yeah, there's one right on in the diner. C'mon, you can come in through the back door over here."
Kaylee pushed her toolbox out of the way with her boot and waved for Snow to follow her up the two wooden steps to a swinging screen door at the kitchen entrance for the diner. Kaylee, not thinking that this was a working diner, figured it was okay to bring Snow in this way because she just wanted to use the phone. The phone was around front at the cash register. There was a phone in the back of the diner, near the stoves, but it was usually grimey with cooking grease.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 20:13:55
Snow gave the girl a warm smile, and followed her up the stairs slowly, using the railing to help her up. "Thankyou." She said, taking in a wiff of the smells around her. Snow didn't much care that most of the food in here could give her a coronary heart attack. She was hungry, and Dr Swineheart kept insisting that she needed to regain the weight she'd lost after the accident.
She followed Kaylee quietly, with only the occasional *click* of her cane on the floor, wading through the kitchen and the food being cooked.
Her stomach growled a little as she picked up the reciever, and dialed the number to her office. It rang a few times, before "I'm sorry. The number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please check the number, and try again."
Snow frowned, and tried the number again, like the pre-recorded message on the phone told her to do. But she got the same result. "Weird."
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 20:16:37
Kaylee had snitched a strawberry from a bowl behind the counter and proceeded to munch on it while Snow was using the phone. When the lady had hung up, Kaylee glanced over.
"Any luck?"
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 20:20:44
"It says I have the wrong number." Snow said, frown increasing. "Which is stupid, because I know nothing is wrong with my office number."
Snow hrmphed. "This is ridiculous."
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 20:25:45
Leaning against the diner counter, between the swivel seats, Kaylee picked up another strawberry from behind the counter and peeled the leaves back. She furrowed her brow, thinking.
"Did you just get here? In this city, I mean?" she asked. "I've heard folk talking and they said that the buildings here move. I thought I saw it happen once, but I couldn't be sure..."
Shrugging, Kaylee took a bite of her newly acquired strawberry.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 20:33:42
"I was driving to my family's farm." Snow said. "And I ended up here. I must've took a wrong turn or something.."
Even though she hadn't turned at all once she'd gotten onto the road that would take her to the Farm. It was all so confusing. And now buildings moved? The only moving building she'd ever heard of was Baba Yaga's hut, and it took a great deal of ancient Magic to actually get any momentum up to move that old shack.
"I think I should sit down." Snow said, eyeing the booths that were on the other side of the counter. She was feeling weary.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 20:38:08
Kaylee raised an eyebrow. There weren't any farms around here. At least, not that she'd seen. And if there were farms, like on Paquin, the farmers would be in town selling their goods.
"Oh, yeah, please sit down." Snow didn't look so hot in Kaylee's untrained medical opinion. "You want a drink or something?" Kaylee thumbed over her shoulder towards the counter.
As long as Kaylee was staying the McKenzie's upstairs apartment, they pretty much let her take whatever she wanted from the kitchens. She didn't take much - other than strawberries. The waitresses knew the mechanic by now and just let her go about her business.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 20:45:20
Snow nodded, "A glass of water, please."
She turned around, and hobbled over to the closest booth, slipping as gracefully into the seat as one could with a bum leg. She leant the cane against the side of the table, and then rested her head in her hands. Why did all the weird and creepy things have to happen to her?
If this all turned out to be some weird spell that Frau Totenkinder had cast on her, then she was taking that bitch of probation and having Bigby lock her up pronto.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 20:49:25
Kaylee went back behind the counter and filled up two glasses of water - one for Snow and one for herself. She'd been out there working on that truck for a while.
Carrying the glass back to the booth where Snow was seated, she slid it down on the tabletop. But seeing her new acquaintence in what seemed to be despair, Kaylee rested a hand on the woman's shoulder.
"Sweetie, it'll be okay." Though what would be okay was still unknown to Kaylee. Everything was would be okay in Kaylee's world.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 21:05:34
"That's nice of you to say." Snow smiled, taking the glass of water with another thankyou. Everything would be alright. It couldn't be any worse than being shot in the head by Goldilocks. All she had to do was sit down, have a glass of water, maybe a little bit to eat. Then she'd have a clear head, and she'd figure out what she'd have to do to get home. Or to the farm.
Or something.
She took a sip of the water, glad to have something cool and refreshing. "Do you work here?" She asked. She hadn't known a Mundy to be this helpful.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 21:09:19
"In here?" Kaylee echoed. "Not in here. Well, technically I guess I do. I've been doing some repair work for the nice folks who own this diner. I'm actually a mechanic for a Firefly class transport ship." She rattled that off like everyone knew what a Firefly was.
But she usually got blank looks around here. "It's a spaceship," she added to clarify. "But she kind of...crashed." Her poor baby falling out of the air like that...it still hit a nerve with Kaylee, even though she'd been planetside a good two weeks at the least.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 21:13:40
"A spaceship?" Snow repeated, one eyebrow raising skeptically to the sky. She'd heard of Mundy's who liked to re-enact the past, but she hadn't ever met one who re-enacted the future. "That's interesting."
Snow didn't quite know what to think, or what else to say that wouldn't sound rude or short. So instead she took another sip from her glass.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 21:23:10
"Oh Serenity's amazing. She may look a little like gos se, but she's got some kick in her..." Kaylee paused when she saw Snow's incredulous look. Yeah...she sure did get that a lot around here.
"You said you have a farm?" Changing the subject might be a good tact. Kaylee leaned against the corner of the booth, taking a drink of her water. "What kind of farm?"
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 21:28:33
"Oh. It's not really my farm." Snow said, placing the glass back down on the table. "My sister is staying out there, and it was about time for a family reunion."
Snow had a few things that she'd needed to say to Rose. 'Thankyou', was one of them. 'I owe you a big one for trying to save my life' was another. 'I'm sorry for being such a cold-hearted bitch' was a third, followed by several long hugs, probably.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 21:34:00
"Oh..." Kaylee said. "And I take it you aren't from around these parts?"
She took another drink of water. Snow reminded her a lot of Inara. Wow...she missed Inara. And the Captain, and Zoe, and Wash, and Jayne...and Simon. Nope. Nope, gotta think positive. Kaylee pushed a lock of renegade hair back behind her ear, focusing her attention on Snow.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 21:44:01
"I live in New York."
She took another sip of water. It was hard to hold a conversation like this without giving anything away. Snow appreciated even more, the general rule that Fables weren't to associate with the Mundies. It just made life too difficult.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 21:47:32
A quizzical look crossed Kaylee's face now. "New York? Wasn't that a town on Earth-That-Was?"
She'd blurted it out without really thinking first. The last time she's mentioned "Earth That Was", Mrs. McKenzie had felt her forehead.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/27/2006 21:50:36
Snow's eyebrow raised again. This girl really took the whole future-reenactment thing one step further. "I'm not sure I know what you mean," She said.
She took another sip. She'd almost finished the glass, but she was feeling much better already.
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/27/2006 21:59:08
"Uh..." How to explain Earth-That-Was? Kaylee hadn't really paid much attention in school. At least not history. Even the few days the week she'd gone to school because they were trying to find work to support her family...
"You want something to eat?" Whoa! Change of subject with a touch of whiplash. ((Who's flying this thing?!))
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/29/2006 06:07:01
Snow looked up, eyes wide. That was a very generous offer, and despite the incredibly loud (at least to her) protests from her stomach, Snow had to decline. "Oh. No. I left my purse in the car. I wouldn't be able to pay... It wouldn't be right."
From: i_getdirty Date: 06/29/2006 07:19:45
Kaylee shrugged. "I'm sure Mrs. McKenzie would give you something on the house."
If all her time on Serenity had taught her anything, it was that you could always bend the rules. If it meant helping someone out when they were in a pinch, then all the better.
From: i_atetheapple Date: 06/29/2006 18:51:05
Snow shook her head. "Oh, I couldn't presume to trespass on your generosity like that."