tearmeanewone | onze + voice/action

[Voice]

Has anyone seen Booker DeWitt? Tall, sandy hair, typically frowning, has 'AD' on his hand? He's at Good Spirits usually, but I haven't seen him there in the past few days...

[She's been looking, too. Ever since that strange hole in everyone's memory, the destroyed wall in her bedroom, and Booker doing a disappearing act, she's felt very uneasy about his being missing. But all of his things were still in the house, so he couldn't have gone far...]

If anyone sees him, would you let him know that I'm-- that Elizabeth is waiting for him to come home?

[Action]

[In the mean time, there's a giant hole in her bedroom wall, and her bedroom is, of course, a disaster area. It's a little unnerving, truth be told, to not remember where so much damage came from, but she's trying to focus on Booker instead of her own memory. She's trying to distract herself with cleaning--moving chunks of wall out onto the grass outside, shaking out her bedding, attempting to put a curtain over the giant hole until it gets fixed...]

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Really? Did he come home?

[She wants to sound excited, but there's a weak tone to her voice.]

Yeah, just . . . a few decades younger.

[Which is bizarre, to say the least. He's just taking it one day at a time. One busy, exceedingly strange day at a time.]

Let me know if you need a warm meal to lift your spirits. I'm becoming an expert at toasted sandwiches and soup.

...Oh... [Well that was strange. Elizabeth hopes that if-- when Booker returns, he's still an adult. Taking care of a smaller Booker sounds absolutely impossible.]

It sounds to me like you need a warm meal that isn't toasted sandwiches and soup. Looking after a child can be very taxing.

Nah, it's fine. Gene's a little gentleman.

[Sort of. Mostly. well, he's not wantonly destructive, and that counts for something at least.]

. . . really though, if you'd like to stop by you're welcome. The not knowing is the worst of it, I know.

Edited 2014-02-03 06:05 (UTC)

I suppose he would be. Well-behaved children generally grow into well-behaved adults.

[...probably?]

[For a moment, Elizabeth isn't sure how to respond to Jack's offer. Gai and Robert were trying their best to keep her comforted, and she'd tried to have logic work for her too. But it wasn't enough. She was at the end of her rope, afraid for Booker, afraid of Songbird returning, exhausted from the guilt of spending every night in Booker's bed and wondering if she had done enough for him before he had gone back to their universe.]

I love Gai and Robert, but I don't know if they know what to do with me. I think Booker was killed, defending me from someone from our universe, during those days I can't remember. He was like my father Jack, I knew he was hurting over something but I never got him to tell me what. If he's gone back to where we came from, I'll never have the chance to help him.

Robert and Rosalind don't care about Booker, they'd probably think I was making too much of this, and Gai and I are supposed to be a happy, engaged couple. He's probably trying to get me to feel normal again so we can go back to being happy, but I just... I just want Booker back. That's all I want right now.

[. . . wow, that's heavy. Jack can't remember the weekend either - it seems like nobody can, so completely that he'd come into work thinking it was Saturday until he'd seen two days of the calendar checked off and the stock a busy weekend's worth of depleted - but he'd never suspected anything sinister might have happened in that time.

But what Elizabeth is talking about is at least familiar, even if in a way that he would prefer not to remember. Suspecting someone was gone, not knowing for sure but still sort of knowing, in that sick pit-of-your-stomach way. Not being able to scrub out of your head the looping replay of the things you should have done.

He replied and his voice is softer, more intent. A little older than the rest of him.]

I- I can't talk about this on the journals. Not if I don't have to. Why don't you come over.

Okay...

[Elizabeth feels terrible about bringing up something that's clearly upsetting to Jack. But it's not much worse than how she feels now, so she figures they can work it out together.]

[She doesn't take anything with her, and just goes over to Jack's place without saying anything to anyone else in the house. She does have Nemo with her, though-- she can't stand to be without him now. Maybe Eugene wanted to play with her puppy for a bit while she and Jack talked.]

[After knocking, she picks up Nemo so she can bring him inside without any dragging involved.]

[By the time Elizabeth arrives, Jack already has the kettle going, and Eugene set up in the bedroom with a colouring book. He unlocks the usual series of locks already ready with an apology or three, and finds then sidelined only by opening the door for her to see a shiny-eyed lump of fuzz in Elizabeth's arms.]

All right, now that . . . that is really unfairly cute. You didn't warn me you were bringing the strategic cuteness reserves.

Booker gave him to me for Christmas. [Elizabeth tries to keep smiling-- she's glad to see Jack, it's been too long since they had a visit, but the circumstances are fighting her tooth and nail.]

I told him one time, off-hand, that I wanted a puppy when I was younger. And he gave me one this year. [Her face crumples and she buries her face in Nemo's neck to cry. She hasn't cried this entire time, holding it all in for Gai and Robert's sakes. But now that she's faced with the most understanding friend she's had, Elizabeth feels safe.]

[Meanwhile, Nemo is trying very hard to turn his head and see what's happening.]

Oh- God, Liz-

[Jack flits through the motions, closing the door behind her and turning one of the locks before taking her by the upper arms, eyes flitting up and down once, helplessly as she crumples into the increasingly confused-looking puppy. It's a geometry that both really doesn't allow for a hug and promises only increasingly worried wriggling if he tries, and he ends up awkwardly hugging her around her back and one shoulder, squeezing her close.]

Hey, shhhhh, hey. It's all right. He'll be back.

Are you sure? [Elizabeth barely manages to get the words out she's sobbing so hard. It's like she's been waiting days to cry.] I'm so afraid that he's dead because of me, and he won't come back. And I won't even know what happened!

[Nemo is very uncomfortable, yes. He squirms until Elizabeth lets him down to explore.]

[Nobody knows what happened in those few days recently, is the problem, and Jack can't imagine that they'll be remembering any time soon if the Malnosso have some vested interest in staying ignorant. It is possible to make a pretty good guess if he's coming back just by taking a look through his things, seeing if a lot of it's disappeared, but he doesn't try to be that constructive just yet. Sometimes the first thing you need is just to cry - so when Elizabeth straightens again he pulls her into a proper embrace, tucked close around her until she's cried herself out.]

[Which does take an impressive amount of time. Elizabeth cries for at least three minutes, petering out and coming back strong a few times whenever she remembers something good Booker had done for her. Nemo is happy trying to get under the sofa.]

I don't want to cry in front of Gai. He's been through enough, he doesn't need to feel helpless while he watches me cry.

It's okay.

[He's fallen to rubbing at her back, and stills finally as she begins to speak, leaning back and canting his head, trying to catch her eye and share a very small smile.]

Your spouse is going to see you cry sooner or later, though. Pretty sure they actually make you promise to that stuff before the rings go on.

Sure they do-- but that doesn't mean anybody's going to hold me down and force him to watch. [Elizabeth is clearly in a difficult mood on top of being upset and raw.] And he's not my spouse yet. I don't even know if I can marry him if I can't let him watch me cry.

Wow- easy, hey. [Yikes, definitely the wrong thing to say. Jack actually draws back a bit, even if he doesn't let go entirely, expression pulling into an awkward half-cringe.] Sorry, didn't mean it like that. Honest.

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