Angelo and Sarah, Monday afternoon

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Sarah takes Angelo up on his offer to go for a drive, along with Joyita, and she gets to talk about what happened to her and why it happened.


It had been several days since Sarah had left her room longer than it took to get food or to use the washroom, let alone leaving the mansion, so she decided to take Angelo up on his offer to go for a ride. Company was always a good thing and along with Angelo she'd also have the company of his dog, which was a nice bonus.

Once they met up, she followed Angelo and his dog out to the parking lot. She looked at the vehicle they were approaching, squinting in the sunlight at the Mustang ahead of them. "Whoa, is that your car?"

"That's my baby", he confirmed with a grin. "18th birthday present, and I look after her. It's a nice day, we can have the top down."

"Wow." She was almost afraid to touch it. "I wonder if I can talk my parents into getting me one for my 18th next year... though I'd have to learn to drive first." Her and Pixie were planning on taking lessons over the summer, but even then it'd be a tough sell to her folks. "Ok, that should be nice and cool." Sarah opened the door to get inside.

Angelo whistled and Joyita leapt straight into the backseat, settling down happily. "Depends how much your folks can afford, I guess. Maybe a second-hand one, if nothing else?"

She grinned as the dog leapt into the backseat, reaching back to pet her head a little. "Maybe, I dunno. I'm sure if I ask for one then Jess will want one too, so I doubt either of us will get something as nice as this." Sarah looked around the car's interior, it was just as lovely on the inside as on the outside. "Maybe someday. So, where to?" She buckled up and looked over at Angelo.

"Where d'you want to go?" he countered. "I'll take you to the city, if you want, or if you want more peace and quiet, the countryside 'round here's all pretty nice."

Sarah thought about that for awhile before answering. "Peace and quiet would be nice, I think." She could always pop into the city herself if she wanted, on the weekends anyway when they had transportation to and from, plus she didn't really want to be around any big crowds just yet.

"Then just call me your chauffeur. We'll drive around 'til you want to come home", he suggested. "And if you want to tell someone who wasn't even here when it all went down about what happened... we can do that too."

She laughed at that, for the first time in ages, it felt like. "Alright then, Mr. Chauffeur." Sarah nodded at the second part, looking out the window as they drove off. "There's not a lot to tell, really." Which was a total lie, but she didn't know how much of it she wanted to talk about. "I mean, a lot happened, I guess, just... nothing good." She rubbed her forehead instinctively, although the pain had thankfully disappeared several days ago now.

"Yeah, that much I got", he said with a quick sideways glance at her. "Everyone got trapped in nightmares, right?"

Sarah continued to look out the window as she spoke. "Yeah, it was pretty bad. Yvette and I... we ended up getting tortured." Those images wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon, unfortunately. She turned to look at Angelo. "Has anything like that ever happened to you while you were here?" Hopefully not but she was a little curious (and would be a lot scared) if this was going to be a recurring situation.

"Not... while I was in the house", he said after a moment's careful consideration. "There was an invasion years ago, I got hurt, but that was more or less an accident. It's pretty secure really."

"I hope so. I mean, nothing like that happened when I was there the first time, or since I've been back. I just really don't want to go through that again." She forced a smile, then looked back out through the window. "It could've been worse, I guess, I mean, some people didn't make it." Sarah hadn't known either of them all that well but it still was awful that anyone had to die at all.

"I know." He glanced at her again briefly, concerned. "That's really never happened before. People've been hurt, but they always pulled through..."

"Not this time, unfortunately." She shook her head. "How could anyone want to do something like that? I just don't get it." It had all seemed so random to her, to pull all of them into their sick plans. "I don't know how anyone could be that awful, could want to make anyone else feel that awful." She was touching her face again, where she'd felt the scars and cuts being carved into her skin.

"We tend to piss people off", he said wryly. "An' unfortunately, sometimes they're powerful people... like this guy, I guess. I'd be willin' to bet he won't be in any position to do it again, though."

"I sure hope not, going through something like that once was more than enough for me." She looked at her reflection in the window, calming herself down by confirming that she wasn't actually scarred and disfigured like she had been in the nightmare. "The nightmare they put me and Yvette through... the torture was by cutting me up. My face, I mean. It was so horrible."

Angelo winced, and Joyita put her head forward and started licking Sarah's hand. "Sounds like it'd be hard to forget. No wonder you've been holed up."

She held her hand out, letting Joyita have her way and smiling at the dog, then petted her once she'd stopped. "It really will be. Every night I dream that it's happening again, and wake up in a cold sweat, looking in the mirror to make sure it hasn't." Sarah really hoped that'd stop sometime soon, especially before classes resumed, since it was making it next to impossible to get a good night's sleep. "And... well, I know it wasn't him, not really, but it was Dr. McCoy who did it to me. In the nightmare."

"Oh man." That was a mix of horror, dismay and sympathy. "That really sucks. You can know it wasn't really him in your head, but until you're over it, it's gotta be hard to be around him."

Sarah nodded. She had a hard enough time with her previous personal hang ups over physical mutations, and having something like that hanging over her head with Hank made it that much worse. "I know, it will be. That's one of the reasons I've been hiding out in my room, that and just generally feel like crap lately."

"Well, Kyle slept in a tree for a week", he pointed out. "I don't think you need to feel bad about hidin' in your room, if that's what you needed to do."

"Everyone has different ways of coping, I guess." Sleeping in a tree wasn't one of hers, but whatever worked. "I just want to get back to normal, I guess, or whatever I was before." Sarah chuckled at that, petting Joyita again.

"You will", he reassured her. "It'll take time, but you'll get there. Just remember you don't have to do it on your own - Samson's a real good adolescent therapist, he helped me a lot."

"I haven't talked to him yet, but that's not a bad idea." She made a mental note to look into that once she got back to the school. It certainly couldn't hurt and she would take all the help she could get right now. "Thanks, Angelo. It means a lot, having someone to talk to." Other than Yvette she hadn't really confined in anyone since it all happened, and it was good to get it off of her chest.

"That's what I'm here for." He gave her a smile. "Just another way I get to give back."

"It's definitely appreciated." Were he not driving, she'd probably have given him a hug, but instead she settled for giving Joyita a few more scritches behind the ears.