ladyfirestarter (
ladyfirestarter) wrote2008-01-01 02:06 pm
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Kate Welker is calling ahead to the airport to arrange tickets, and to make sure there'll be a skycap on hand with a wheelchair.
Eric's driving. Charlie's sharing the passenger seat with Susannah.
"...So we got a call from Tet about an hour and a half ago, saying Rose had regained consciousness and she was saying you were in a place called Milliways."
Eric's driving. Charlie's sharing the passenger seat with Susannah.
"...So we got a call from Tet about an hour and a half ago, saying Rose had regained consciousness and she was saying you were in a place called Milliways."
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She doesn't like that. There's a whole lot of reasons she doesn't like that. "And somehow she found out." Either she saw, or someone told her.
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A beat.
"When I said no one was dead, I wasn't counting the attackers. Rose apparently took one of the guns in the panic room, and ... made a sortie, I think the term is."
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Blew out his little white candle for good, did she? Knew that chile had to be good for somethin.
Two men dead. "Does she know?"
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(It's annoying to be reduced to cliches.)
"I didn't know you had a permanent door there," she says. "I don't think I knew that. Where did it come from?"
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"From Milliways, actually. Dr. Stantz built it for us, a while ago."
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The kind of cleverness that is both useful and dangerous.
"Hell," she says flatly, after a moment's beat. "Do you have any paper?"
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"Eric, there should be a notebook in the glove compartment. Could you pass it back here, please?"
He does, neatly steering one-handed for the few seconds it takes.
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A pause, and her gaze falls to her own knees.
"I'm sorry," she says, low. "Sorry we didn't pick up the warning sooner."
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Then she softens, and sighs. "It isn't your fault, Charlie. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I let my guard down. We thought we were so--safe," she says, as if it's a dirty word.
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Until the little tickle (something's wrong at home) starts, the one that tells you everything's about to come crashing down. And it doesn't always arrive in time to let you do anything about it.
"Fault or no," she says, and that's all.
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They're nearly there. Eric's pulling in at the end of a line of cars, slowing down.
Charlie raises her head and looks Susannah in the face. "Anything I can do," she says.
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There's no question that if she has a use for the psychics of Taos, she'll make the call.
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It's hard not to feel that she has.
The car pulls to a stop, and the skycap's waiting with the placard reading TOREN, and there's no time to say anything else.