La Vie En Rose - At the Airport

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

Remy and Lorna make ready to leave France and go back to the real world. It promises to be a harsh introduction to Remy's life for Lorna but she refuses to be swayed.

[Set, obviously, before the Drop of Nightshade logs and again, try not to think about the timeline.]



There were few airports that fit the term of provincial better than Bordeaux. It was a surprisingly well travelled, but most of the flights were connections to other airlanes; longer journeys. There was a certain amount of irony in that, Remy considered. The fractured local link to a larger whole, intentionally withdrawn from the competition for control.

He shuffled his bags over to beside his chair, waiting for their gate to be called. "You sure dat you want to go through wit' dis, chere?"

Lorna yawned over her coffee and rested her head on his shoulder, "How many more times are you going to ask me that? I'm sure. What's a girl got to do to be believed? Besides," she added, offering him her drink, "If I'm not it's still too late to change my ticket again."

"Oddly enough, traveling into a city on de brink of meltdown between criminal factions is generally not something dat you're used to." Remy shook his head. "Unlike you, I owe people down dere; debts dat need to be paid. Dere's nothing dere you need to risk your life on."

"You're going, I'm going. If I don't, Amanda might yell at me again and then I'd cry." She looked up at him, "You don't want me to cry, do you?" She sat up and smiled, "I know I don't have to go. But I'm going anyway. I'll keep an eye on you and make sure that you don't get yourself in over your head. You worry about the city and I'll worry about you. It'll work out."

"Work out. A city full of killers and criminals, and you assume it will work out? De problem is dat dese people don't play by the rules. If dey decide to try and kill you, it becomes 'bout you or dem. Dat's not something dat you used to yet, chere."

Lorna's sleepy amused expression vanished into serious alertness, "I think you underestimate me, Remy. I'm taking this seriously. Believe me, I don't want either of us to end up dead. But if you think there isn't a chance of coming out of this alive, you need to tell me right now."

"I don't know. Tante sent me dat letter knowing dat I was crippled. She knew dat I was going to come down, and I was going to die." Remy flipped the edges of his fake passport idly with his thumb. "So I don't know what we walking into. It might be nothing, or we could be dead before we get out of de airport."

"She can't know you're going to die. Even if she had some sort of vision of the future," Lorna shook her head, "Pre-cog isn't perfect, the future isn't perfect. What she saw, that isn't the same future as now. So let's have a little optimism, all right? You're not going to die because it's not just you. It's us. Things will work out."

"You don't know dat." Remy sighed. "Maybe you coming down means dat you end up taking Remy's place. I don't have de slightest idea what we're looking at. I'm ready to take dat risk because I owe Tante. You don't have to."

"And you don't know that I'm not right. I'm not fragile like you think I am. I didn't get this," she nodded at her shoulder, "playing tennis. I take risks for my job and I'll take the risks for you. If you don't want me to go because you think I'm going to get hurt, that's too bad. If you don't want me to go because you think I'm just going to be in the way, that's another thing and you're welcome to tell me that I'm just going to be useless."

"I don't want you to go because to stay alive you might have to kill people. People who are trained to kill or be killed." Remy looked away. "It's not fair to put you in dat situation, especially since you haven't been trained for it. De people down dere take lives as easily as you breathe. We come up against dem, and you might have to do de same."

"Will I be useful to you there?" Lorna didn't so much ignore his warnings as acknowledge then set them aside. Her decision was made and her line long since drawn on that quarter. "If not, then tell me. But don't lie to me."

"Dat's not de point, and you know it. Remy already a killer. Dere's no reason for you to risk dat."

She shook her head, "No, Remy, that is the point. You can warn me and you can try to scare me but the point is that you need me there. And I'm not going to walk away when you do. So one more time, if I'm only going to be in your way, tell me. If not, then this discussion is done. I'm going to New Orleans with you."

"One day you going to hate me for dis. I hope you realise dat."

Lorna rolled her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder again, "You're such a pessimist, Remy."

Remy didn't respond. Despite all of her training, Lorna still didn't have a chance at understanding the world that he came from. Eventually she would, and that would tear them apart as certainly as anything.