xp_logs | Log: Laurie and Garrison

Garrison pays Laurie a visit.

Laurie awoke in the darkness, instinctively reaching for an arm she knew wasn't there. She swore she could still feel the limb that even years long past she'd lost. This time, there was no feeling. Just muscle memory. It took a minute or two before she noticed that there was a person sitting next to the bed in the darkness.

With a voice loaded with uncharacteristic menace, Laurie was pulled immediately awake. It was Garrison Kane, his voice low only a few feet from her ear.

"We need to talk."

Laurie was quiet for a time, allowing her brain to catch up even as she went over what he could possibly want to talk about right now, at this time of night and in her room alone.

“Is this the type of talk I end up walking away from?” Laurie questioned, her tone even despite the chill that went through her spine. She could beat him, she’d proven that but not without dying, or killing and she didn’t want to do either tonight. “Because I’d prefer to continue breathing if it’s all the same to you.”

"You know better than that." Garrison said quietly. "You need to stop. I know you're in pain. I know it better than anyone, but you need to stop. Now."

Laurie released a sigh as she lay there, mostly listening to just his voice, unwilling to really look at him for the moment.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

"Yes you do. There are many issues between us, but I've never taken you for being stupid, Laurie. Give me the same credit." He said. "I know what it is like to lose a limb. I had Creed rip my arm out of my socket. For once, we have something in common. The Brotherhood took our sense of whole from both of us. Not Jean. Not anyone here at the mansion."

“Of course.”

Laurie’s tone had turned knowing, bitter and resigned all at once.

“You know, I don’t think anyone has ever cared to defend me, not without some sort of resignation. It must be nice. You hate me, Garrison. Don’t pretend otherwise. Our ‘problems’ are that you loathe me and always have. I don’t hate Jean, but you can’t deny she was the cause of it all. The Brotherhood were just a consequence.”

Laurie turned her back to him as her remaining hand came up to cradle the stump of her limb.

It was raw, a tree pattern of burnt flesh rippling outward toward her shoulder and up over her neck. She’d been fascinated when she first saw it in the mirror, when she’d woken enough from the morphine to be able to think straight.

“Just, spare me the lecture. Your precious Jean is safe from my censure, I was just tired.”

"I don't think I will. This isn't a lecture, Laurie. This is the end of the line."

He paused, slowed, and finally took a breath. "The days of blaming what happened are long gone. All you're doing by going after Jean is dredging things up for everyone else. It's not about protecting her. It's about protecting everyone else who faced her twin and lost everything. And you fucking know that."

“For fuck’s sake, Garrison.”

Laurie turned again and struggled to sit for a moment before she managed to move herself into a sitting position. She glared at him, hating that he saw this, that everyone was going to see this.

“I’m done. As anything other than a cripple, I’m done. Soon as I woke up, I thought I’d just go on. Another day at the mansion, all fucked up but at least I could help people. You know what I found out? My nerves won’t carry advanced tech anymore.”

Laurie broke off as she closed her eyes, struggled against the tears that threatened to fall as she laid it all out. The truth she hadn’t shared yet beyond the Medlab staff.

“Darcy is being a gopher right now, helping out with what I need. She feels guilty and she doesn’t even know the worst yet.”

"That's a brutal thing to face, Laurie. I mean that." Kane said earnestly. "But do you think the more you hurt people, the better you'll feel? Is that who you are? Be honest."

Laurie met his gaze in the darkness, silent as she watched him. It had felt good to lash out, to release the rage and pain during those hours when she’d first woken.

Doug, he’d been so carefree. How dare he be carefree when she was falling apart.

But, was she that person?

“No.”

Kane got up from his chair, some of the dangerous menace abating.

"Good. Get some sleep. Something brutal happened to you. You should be angry about it. But think about what you told me in the morning when you decide where to direct it. If you need my help, you have it. If not, that's fine too." Kane started to leave and then stopped.

"But targeting everyone stops tonight. Or that line I mentioned... don't be on the other side, Laurie."