(no subject)

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth still didn't know what to make of what she'd seen. The night had been ruined, and she had decided to head home not long after, the strange stone in tow. A part of her had wanted to throw it away. A part of her wanted to smash it. But she did neither, because she had to know for sure what she had seen.

And why what she'd seen and what Delsin has seen was so different.

So it stayed there, put aside, in her apartment. She knew she ought to look again, to try to understand more, but she was afraid to. She wasn't sure what it meant, and the idea of seeing what she saw again -

It turned her stomach.

But she knew she had to. So she sat in her apartment, trying to work herself up to it, idly petting Oliver as she did.

Comments

[wipeawaythedebt]

"Yeah, it's why I'm here. Why? You find something? Something hurt you?" He's trying to be gentle, but there's something in her face, some terror or sadness that has him boiling. This place was supposed to be better. She was supposed to be free here, not stuck in some hell.

Taking her arm, he tries to lead her to the sofa, "C'mon, sit down, tell me what happened."

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth wanted to pace. She did let him lead her to a seat, though. He sounded so concerned, and it made her feel terrible. She had no idea how to even tell him what she'd seen. It didn't seem fair, burdening him with it as well.

"I found one. I - I didn't know what it was. I don't even know why I picked it up," she admitted. The entire thing seemed strange to her now, how it just seemed so obvious she ought to pick it up. "I went to eat something with Delsin after, and when we looked at it closer - something happened. I saw something."

She frowned then, trying to collect her thoughts well enough to explain it to him. The image felt like it was still burned in her mind. "I don't really understand what I saw or what it's supposed to mean. Something that happens in the future? Something that's just there to upset me? It wasn't anything good, Booker."

[wipeawaythedebt]

"I don't know what it is, I've only heard about 'em from other people, but I don't think it's real, Elizabeth, or it doesn't have to be. No one decides your future but you, it's what we're trying to do back in Columbia, it's what you have here. Freedom." And damn anyone who ties to get in the way of that, because he knows what he'll do to them. No matter what, she's gonna have whatever choices she can have even if he has to bleed for it.

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth had hoped since she saw it that it wasn't real. She'd tried to convince herself of it, but she just - what she had seen -

She swallowed thickly as she continued speaking.

"I was dead. I was dead in some place I had never seen before, Booker. Not here, not Columbia, and the only person there with me was a little girl I'd never seen before. And I wasn't just dead - I was killed, by someone I'd never seen before," she said, softly. She got up, picking up the box she'd kept the horrible thing in. She placed it in front of him, adding, "I'm scared to look again, but I think I should. If - if something is different - maybe that'd be proof."

But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not alone.

[wipeawaythedebt]

"Do- do you want me to look at it with you?" He's not sure that's the best idea, but he's willing to risk it to help Elizabeth. Feels a little too much like looking through a tear, looking at something that's not real but could be.

And he doesn't want see what she just told him about. He doesn't think he can handle seeing her, his daughter, dead.

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth hesitated at the offer. Honestly, she didn't want him to see it, either, not unless he had to. It was clear she was in a place he likely couldn't have reached, but she knew it would affect him anyway. Just like it would affect her if she saw him hurt so badly.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she spoke quietly, hoping to make it clear that he didn't have to. "I admit you're probably right about it."

[wipeawaythedebt]

"If there's something you need to see, I figure there's not much I haven't." Not after the war, not after Columbia. He's no stranger to blood, even if it belongs to someone he cares for. He knows it's gonna hurt, but at least he's prepared for it. "Maybe I'll see something you don't."

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth hesitated only a moment more before she nodded. Perhaps he was right, she didn't know. Opening the box carefully, she picked up the orb and held it in her two hands.

"Delsin saw things by standing behind me and looking in over my shoulder," she explained. She could already see it beginning to work, so there was really no going back any longer.

[wipeawaythedebt]

He moves as requested and takes a deep breath. In the long list of things that made his head spin, this was just another in the long line. Not as strange as Elizabeth's tears, stranger than winding up in this place to begin with. Everything had a level of crazy attached to it.

The glowing orb catches his attention and he finds he can't look away. As the mist? Smoke? Fog? Whatever, clears, he can see some kind of house. The details aren't important, because what's on the porch gets his full attention. It's him, but it's... someone else, too. Someone older, someone who's lived life a little bit harder, sitting in a rocking chair, old and maybe close to dying. He looks familiar, but aside from looking like him, the face escapes him.

The woman coming up to the porch is unmistakeable. Elizabeth. Older. More mature, with a baby in her arms and two kids behind her that are unmistakably hers. He can't hear the words, but he knows what they're saying as they run up to the porch just the same. Grandpa! They call. Over and over again, they're calling him Grandpa and he's smiling, getting up from the rocker, slowly, but with renewed strength as he takes the smaller child into his arms and gives him a tickle.

Elizabeth joins them as they head indoors. A family. Like it was always supposed to be and maybe... will be someday?

[cagedlamb]

It was the same as before. Elizabeth watched with some amount of fear. She didn't know if there was anything worse than she already saw, but she knew enough that this place could be terrible and prove otherwise.

Instead, it was a far less grim scene. She saw herself in a beautiful white gown in some sort of large room, faces of friends sitting all around. Booker took her hand as slow music began to play. They began to dance, both of them with beaming smiles on their faces. It did not take her longer than that to realize she was witnessing what appeared to be her wedding. It was so unexpected and so happy that she felt almost like crying in relief upon seeing it. She held it together though as the image eventually faded as the dance ended.

"Booker," she spoke softly after a moment, looking over her shoulder at him. "What - what did you see?"

[wipeawaythedebt]

"I saw..." He trails off, not quite sure how to explain what he saw. If it would help her or hurt her. Or at least that's what he's telling himself. If he keeps the focus on her, he won't think about how it's really for him. The last thing he wants is for Elizabeth to hear that future and think it's anything but the blessing he sees it as. That might hurt him more than anything she's said to him since they met.

"Only good things, Elizabeth. I saw only good things. Which means this thing can't be showing the future. At least not any future that's carved in stone. Maybe it's more like the Luteces said - two sides to the same coin. One future like what you saw and one like I saw. You seen the same thing again?"