rendez-vous + APPOINTMENT POST

[tearmeanewone]

[This is an appointment post for Elizabeth at luceti.]

[When making a new thread, please mark the subject with Action/Video/Voice/Written and the date the thread takes place.]

Comments

[Action] March 25th

[voidseeing]

[Gai jolts awake so abruptly that he doesn't even realize what's going on at first, all of his senses switched into high gear and his hand reaching out for a gun that isn't at his bedside. It's sheer instinct that motivates him; he would recognize Elizabeth's scream anywhere. He doesn't need to know what prompted it to spring into action, steel grey eyes scanning the room for any intruders... only to find none. They're alone in the room, just as they had been when they went to sleep.

A nightmare, then? Usually he was the one who awoke screaming. This was a decidedly upsetting reversal of things, because if it was bad enough to make her scream like that...

Immediately he wraps his arms around her and pulls her close against his chest so that she can hear his heartbeat and feel that solid physical presence, even if she doesn't quite register who he is just yet.]

Elizabeth, it's all right. It was just a bad dream-- I'm right here.

[Action] March 25th

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth has forgotten that Gai is next to her in bed, and being grabbed only makes her scream again and fight. Fight like he's going to kill her.]

NO NO NO, LET ME GO!! [She struggles to get her elbow into position so she can get him in the solarplexus.]

[Action] March 25th

[voidseeing]

[That... is not what he was expecting, yet it isn't surprising either, as he too has gotten combative immediately after awakening from a nightmare. That attempted elbow isn't difficult to anticipate and avoid, and he's quick to let her go and back away, lifting his hands up to show that he isn't going to hurt her.

Still, it hurts more than he'd expected to see her struggle like that and yell at him as if he were some sort of attacker rather than her fiance.]

It's just me, Elizabeth. It's Gai.

[Action] March 25th

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth, to contrast, has never been this upset or violent after a nightmare. But she feels so threatened, her head hurts, she feels like her heart is going to explode out of her chest.]

[But she sees Gai's face, and it isn't dark, and it isn't demanding to know things Elizabeth can't tell him.] Gai... [Hand shaking, Elizabeth gently combs her fingers through a lock of Gai's hair. It is him, it's him.]

Oh God... oh my God... [Elizabeth presses the heel of her hand into her eye socket, trying to make the feeling of that pin go away.] I'm sorry, I'm sorry--!

[Action] March 25th

[amonglions]

[Booker has barely drifted off when he hears her scream his name, and at first - he's too tired to register that it didn't come from his mind. Until she starts screaming at Gai to let her go. Then he's off like a shot with a shotgun in his hand - either out of reflex or memory - and shouting like madman:]

Elizabeth?!

[Memories of Elizabeth being taken....by Songbird, by the droids here...both times screaming for help and both times Booker didn't do enough, not nearly, to save her. Despite his promise.

It might be that which motivates him to burst into her (their) room without knocking, panicked and too in his head to realize right away what wasn't happening.]

[Action] March 25th

[tearmeanewone]

[At least by the time Booker arrives, Elizabeth and Gai are at arm's length. She's still pressing at her eye, trying not to cry, nearly hyperventilating.]

[And when she looks up and sees Booker in the doorway with his shotgun, Elizabeth can't keep it in anymore. She feels like a child, scared of the dark, and only wanting to be reassured and tucked in. Only wanting to not be without him, ever.]

Booker! [Her first few movements result in her legs getting caught in her nightgown, so she falls when she tries to get off the bed and to him. She feels almost drugged she's so confused and disoriented and upset.]

[Action] March 25th

[voidseeing]

[Once again, Gai reacts out of pure instinct, propelling himself off the bed to kneel down on the floor beside her and make sure that she's all right. What's notable is the fact that, rather than trying to embrace her again, he simply rests a gentle hand on her shoulder as a sign of support, that he's willing to do more if she needs it, but that the boundaries here are up to her.

Especially given that Booker is currently standing in the doorway with a shotgun. Understandable, yet not a variable he wants introduced to this equation. As long as Booker has that out, he's not going to do anything without Elizabeth's explicit approval.]