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[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth knew she could not put it off forever.

She wanted to, of course. Wanted to try to just return to normal. But now at least two people knew there was something different about them, something no one knew of before, and she was almost as much on edge right then as she'd been on that ship. Sybil had always been kind to her, but that was before she found out she'd basically lied about so many things.

The longer she waited, the worst it would get. She was sure of that. The longer she waited, the more likely things might come out, too, if she didn't explain things. So on a day she knew Booker would be out most of the day, she finally used the contraption - a cell phone, she thought it was called - to send her a text asking her to come over at a time convenient to her. She had no idea if she would take the invitation, but it was the most she could do beyond showing up at her apartment herself. This, at least, gave her a choice to come or not.

The last thing she wanted to do, after all, was make her feel like she had no choice but to speak to her. So she would remain in the apartment, idly playing with Oliver, the pitbull puppy completely oblivious to anything but the chew toy he so enjoyed ripping apart.

If only she had so little worries herself.

Comments

[adifferentlife]

"Thank you," Sybil says, in part because it is what one does when apologised to, but also because she appreciates it. Even though their friendship is new and still tentative, Sybil likes to think she can trust Elizabeth. Seeing what she saw... It made her question her instincts. Then again, she's had very little reason in her life to have secrets, and it's hard sometimes to understand that not everyone had that openness in their life. "I'd like to know."

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth nodded, almost to herself. Oliver had sat near her, and she found herself idly - perhaps nervously - stroking his head gently. It had a calming effect.

"Where I come from is...much different from this place, and hidden away in the sky, beyond the knowledge of everyone below. When I first came here, I was escaping a prison I had been in all my life. Booker had been the one aiding my escape," she explained, though she left out the part he'd been helping her because of a bounty - at least, at first. "And when I say all my life, I mean all my life. I was confined to a small living place for as long as I could remember."

It was hard to talk about it, but it felt important to explain. To explain why she feared being found so much.

"Lying was the only option for both of us. You saw what you saw - how fast do you think people would find us, if anyone in this city is connected to the ones who wanted me back?" she said, her tone a little more tense now. She had to understand, she just had to. "So he does his best to hide it. And we both lie about where we're from. I just want a chance at a normal life."

She wasn't some kind of thing to be locked away, especially when the thing that made her special wasn't even anything she could do here. There was no tears for her to manipulate. She'd lost the ability to make them herself long ago.

"I never liked lying, but if people knew - if it got out -" she trailed off. Perhaps nothing would happen right then, but what if someone came like the had? What if they knew a way back somehow? Trying to remain under the radar was the only safe option.

[adifferentlife]

"That's horrible." She's listened patiently, waiting until Elizabeth seemed finished before she says anything. Even then she's not entirely sure what it is she should say.

Sybil wishes she could say she can't understand being a captive, but what happened to her nearly a year before was only for a day, not an entire life. That is completely incomprehensible to her, and she's aghast. "If it got out then they might find you and take you back to that place?"

[cagedlamb]

There had been a part of her that wondered if she would even be believed. She hadn't even spoken of where she was actually from, which added a whole other element to how strange things had been before here.

"I don't think anyone trying to find me is here. But if it could bring Booker and I here, surely it could bring the people who were searching for me," she explained. She hoped that day would never come. "For all people know, Booker and I are normal people. We'd have a better chance of finding out ahead of time if people don't automatically know Booker as the man who can use those Vigors. Besides -"

She paused then, nervously twisting the thimble on her half-formed pinky and focusing more on it than Sybil. This part of it all made her feel selfish, but she knew it had to be said. "Even if - even if they never come here - people would treat me differently if they knew all of this. I know they would. I don't want that."

[adifferentlife]

The last she can understand a great deal. Sybil had been terrified when she left Downton to be trained as a nurse that she would be treated differently as an Earl's daughter. Perhaps not quite to the same degree, but the relief she'd felt at being made to scrub floors and bedpans along with all the other trainees had been strong. Being different and being judged for that difference when it is not one she could help is an awful thing.

"Then I will keep your secret," she says with a firm nod. It is only right, she thinks, knowing that Elizabeth could have lied to her or avoided her in order to not have to tell these things. "I appreciate that you explained, and that it must have been difficult. Secrets always seem so hard to keep. Wearing on a person, I suppose."

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth hadn't truly been sure whether or not she was gong to be willing to keep it quiet. Imagine her pleasure to realize she was offering her silence. It was something she didn't have to offer, after all.

"Thank you. I cannot tell you how glad that makes me to hear," she said, sounding relieved. She did feel terrible that it would have to be her secret now as well, but it couldn't be helped. "I hope you know I didn't keep this all to myself lightly. I truly don't like lying like this."

[adifferentlife]

"I can't say that I understand completely, as I've never been in such a situation, but I do know what it's like to live in a society where each is judged for their place in it. For something that none of else can help." She offers Elizabeth an encouraging smile, not wanting the woman to think she's angry or annoyed. "From what you say, you do have reasons, and for that I am sorry too. I wouldn't like to make things harder for you."

[cagedlamb]

"I hope none of my fears ever come to pass. There's been no sign of my pursuers since I got here," she explained. She felt like that was needed to be stressed - it was her hope she never had to worry about anyone getting hurt on her account, for keeping her secrets. "With all you know now, though, I'd understand if you wanted to keep your distance."

[adifferentlife]

"Why would I want to do that? It doesn't change who you are, or that we're friends. It isn't because of you that we ended up in that awful place. In fact, without your friend I would have ended up with far worse than a few scars on my arms." The cuts have healed nicely, and the pinkness is fading to white, but Sybil knows that they'll leave a mark. "You both saved us."

[cagedlamb]

The one thing Elizabeth often feared was the idea that people would simply not want to speak to her upon finding out the secret she shared with Booker. That she would be labeled strange even in this strange place they've ended up in. To hear her say otherwise meant more than she knew how to express.

"I'm glad you're alright," she confessed. "Booker used almost all of what he could do there. I hope none of us are ever put in such a situation again."

[adifferentlife]

"I wish I could say I didn't think we would be, but it wasn't my first time being abducted to another place so." Sybil winces as she says it, wishing that it wasn't an admission she had to make. "Though I am glad that you were both there this time, as strange as it is to wish that horror on anyone. This place... It has a way of picking us no matter how we might prepare otherwise."