xp_logs | Bishop and Vanessa: Recovery (Backdated) (Reply)

After talking with Warren, Bishop goes to see Vanessa to make sure she is doing well. He offers to break her out despite things seeming fishy.

Bishop knocked very lightly before quietly stepping into the guest room Vanessa was occupying. She may still be asleep and, if she was, he didn't want to wake her. He was delivering a balloon was all; it was what one did when someone was sick, even if she obviously wasn't in need of critical care anymore. The balloon was shiny silver that read "Get Well ~~Soon~~ OR ELSE" courtesy of a strike through with a red marker.

Vanessa was awake and on the couch flipping through channels. "Daytime television is a bleeding nightmare. How do soccer moms get through their day?" she asked before even bothering to glance over to see who it was. She naturally assumed it would be Jean checking on her, or Warren doing that thing where he tries not to hover but feels like he's hovering anyway. When she looked over toward the door, though, she found a very different sight there. A small, fond smile crossed Laura's lips. "Hey, you. Shouldn't you be off doing your job or summat at this hour?" There was a touch more Irish in Vanessa's usual Southie accent, but not nearly enough to be reminiscent of her Morgan days. Not yet anyway.

"I've been picking the cases up for everyone so you can keep relaxing and then can obsess and hover or take a break." Bishop tied the balloon to a closet door knob. Seeing Vanessa as Laura was odd but he knew it was her. "I can step out to see if you need anything."

"All I need is to get out of here, replace my shit that was stolen and dumped and move from there." And go buy clothes in Laura's size. Vanessa really, really loathed shopping. She shuddered at the thought and shook her head. "I think being asleep for two weeks and having a telekinetic telepath making sure I'm on house arrest for another week is enough of a break, don't you? What am I going to do? Hang out with the goats that supposedly populate my apartment?"

"I don't know anything about what they're doing for your recovery." Bishop moved to sit in a chair facing Vanessa. "I'm just seeing if you need anything other than a break out. I assume Warren is running errands for you."

"Personally, I would love to break out of here." She cast a glance to the door as she said it, then over her shoulder to the windows. It didn't look like Vanessa had slept much lately, which she hadn't. Apparently obsessing over details of illusion versus truth and coming to the conclusion that there was no conclusive way to prove either wasn't great for getting into a REM cycle. "Warren is...trying to help. He's not suffocating which is nice but I keep the door locked and don't answer it most of the time anyway. Or I go down to the gym. I'm pretty sure recovery is over but the doctor wants to be sure I'm actually healed." With a wry smile she added, "I'm fairly certain she thinks I'm crazy."

"Does she think you weren't before?" Bishop asked with a soft laugh. He was the kind of guy to use humor to get past the hard times. He didn't share it much before some people found it insulting.

"Clearly she didn't know me very well to begin in," Vanessa agreed in a dry tone. Her level of sanity, quite frankly, was questionable some days from some perspectives. Vanessa could appreciate that. She didn't exactly think she needed to be kept an eye on for being on edge after being a science experiment for months, though.

"Do you know anything about my rescue?" she asked out of the blue, changing the topic unapologetically. Gesturing to a loaner laptop courtesy of Charles, she continued, "Warren, Wanda and Doug mention it all on the journals in a way that makes me think they were there. I don't know who else was or how they found me. Do you?"

Bishop nodded. "X-Factor did it. We had plenty of volunteers to help." He didn't try to predict what she wanted to know but was instead focused on being available to answer her questions.

"So you, Laura, Jean-Paul, maybe Laurie and possibly 'Riley'?" You could almost hear the quotations around the last name. "With more than just Warren, Doug and Wanda? How many people did you take with you? That seems a bit overkill."

"We didn't really have solid information on what we were going into. I put together a big team." Bishop explained. "I kept everything in a file for you back at the office. Once they're done with you here you're welcome to review it."

"Of course I'm going to review it." Especially since he obviously wasn't going to give her any details about the rescue. There were other people she could find out from. Warren, for one, would probably tell her what she wanted to know. All she knew now was she had been found in Prague by close to a dozen people. She didn't know how they knew where to look, where exactly in Prague she'd been found or how she had been extracted. She knew next to nothing aside from waking up in a hospital room and agreeing to be put into a drug-induced coma with the thought that if she never woke up she'd have a pretty good handle on the whole reality versus illusion mental debate.

"You should let it rest until you're done with your observation. I would just bring it in but Jean's on my list of people to not make angry." It wouldn't matter how strong Bishop was if Jean went straight for the mind.

Vanessa gestured to the room around her, eyes sweeping the place as her hand moved. "I don't see that I have much choice, do I?"

Bishop shrugged, thought for a moment, and offered very seriously. "I don't think you should leave but if you want to I'll get you out of here."

Now that caught and kept Vanessa's attention. She leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees as she sat Indian style on the couch. "As in temporarily and then bring me back or as in get me out and let me stay out?"

"Your life as far as I'm concerned. If you don't want to be here no one has the authority to keep you." Bishop said. "Just keep in mind they're trying to help you and make sure you're well. They risked a lot for you and aren't going to be thrilled if you just disappear."

"I don't consider going home disappearing. It's not like they wouldn't know where to check. Or like a mega powerful telepath doesn't live here and isn't probably picking up on my thoughts of escape anyway." Vanessa was pretty sure her desire to not be here was the equivalent of a mental scream. If Charles was filtering it out then it was strictly by choice. "People want to help me, well they did. I was found, I was removed and I was healed. Past tense being operative here. I was healed as in my healing is done so why am I being kept here to be 'observed'?"

Bishop shrugged. "I haven't asked. I do wonder why you're still wearing Laura if you're better, though."

"Jean isn't certain I'm fully healed for whatever reason." Vanessa shrugged. She had told Laura the real reason and she probably should tell Bishop the real reason, but she just couldn't bring herself to publicize her new little issue. People would worry when she told them she couldn't figure out how to drop the mimic. They would look more closely and want to know why. Vanessa had no answers and she didn't want people looking at her like something they had to figure out. That's how the New Son scientists had looked at her. Looking down at her borrowed hands, Vanessa popped Laura's claws out. She found the skin being sliced open as they emerged oddly satisfying. "Besides, I'm somewhat fond of having claws and Laura would love to have a twin."

"And I'm sure you two could get any person with a cheerleader twin fantasy to do whatever you wanted but you can always pick it back up." Bishop eyed her warily. "You're willing to appease Jean by keeping the mimic but not by staying and watching bad TV for a week?"

Vanessa shrugged, the gesture more like the girl she wore than herself. "The mimic costs me less than watching bad TV. TV rots your brain, and possibly your soul, while wearing Laura mostly just confuses people who forget I'm wearing her."

"Mhm." Bishop grunted, not seeming convinced by the idea. "Want me to bring you a book?"

She visibly perked at the mention of books. Even the mere idea of them got her sitting up straighter and putting away the claws. "A book? How about like five of them? I actually have a shelf back at my place of books I haven't read yet. If you could pillage that it'd be lovely." She leaned forward and propped her chin on one palm. "King of the vague, can you tell me if any of my shit I had with me in Boston was ever recovered? You know, my gun? My wallet? My laptop? My phones? Fuck, my clothes?"

"You phones." Bishop nodded. "I can make a book run. You just want me to surprise you with what I bring?"

Her phones had been recovered, Only her phones. Her gun had been her favorite handgun. She'd had that Sig Sauer for ages. Thom had given it to her. Now it was at the bottom of an ocean or summat. Damn it. Sure, she could replace it but getting the same model didn't make it the same gun. Vanessa had a frown etched into her expression at the mourning thoughts playing through her mind. "Yeah, surprising me is fine. And can you bring me my phones? I assume you have them or know who does and can retrieve them?" She almost asked him to bring her composite bow back but she'd already given out the combination to that safe once this week and she wasn't keen to repeat it. She trusted Bishop, she just preferred not to have to trust anyone that much if she could help it.

Bishop nodded and stood, "Do I need to bring you something to eat that isn't hospital food? Or are they letting you eat what you want?"

"I've been poaching the main kitchen. Grey is going to need to drag my ass down to the medlab telekinetically to get me to eat hospital food." Hell, she was going to need to drag Vanessa telekinetically to get her anywhere near the medlab. Though Vanessa made no promises she wouldn't try to cut the woman in two if she pulled the telekinetic straight jacket bullshit on her again.

"I'll bring the books and phones back shortly." Bishop repeated the order again as if he were a server before heading for the door.

"Thanks." She almost asked how peeved he'd get at Laura if she helped break Vanessa out of the mansion but chose not to. After all, he'd offered to help her break out, too, so it would be a little hypocritical if he got mad at the kid.