The Quiet of Night, Continuation of "Day Pass"

[Selene]

It was dark by the time Selene Brodrick slid through the wide double glass doors that led to one of the University's large lecture halls and turned in the direction of the adjacent Institute at which she now made her home. The walk took less than half an hour, but Selene had come to enjoy those few quiet minutes of the evening that she had to herself during the walk from one location to the other. It had been several days since she'd begun making the evening treks, meeting with each of her teachers in turn in some desperate attempt to catch up on all the material she'd missed in her classes. She'd been absolutely certain upon her return to some semblance of her old 'normal' life she would have to drop all of her classes, letting several months of hard work go to waste in an effort to spare herself from being dismissed from the university entirely due to the failing grades she was sure to recieve if she couldn't make up all her missed work.

It turned out that Fate had a kind and gentle side to match her wickedness. The same converstaion that had returned her to her research at the institute had also seen Dr. Waters, whom Selene rather looked up to despite her father's ill opinion of the woman, making phone calls to each of her teachers, making the arrangments Selene was certain she would have been denied had she requested them herself. The young woman had been beyond surprised to discover that she was rather well liked amongst the university staff, though she wasn't at all surprised that absolutely every one of them read the news paper. There probably wasn't a person in the city that didn't know her name and face by now. Between what little they knew of her horrible ordeal and the influence of one of the Skygate Institute's finest minds, Selene's professors had all been easily convinced to hold these evening sessions with her, allowing her the chance to catch up on the material she'd missed, while keeping her from falling any further behind without her actually having to return to her daily classes. Selene was quite certain she wasn't yet ready to face the mob that awaited her during the University's peak hours. University students are all the same; getting close to a local celebrity, that's what'll be on all their minds the instant I walk back through those doors. Best to let it blow over. Let something else take their attention and then I'll waltz back into their midst as though I never left.

That, at least, was her hope.

This particular session, however, had run later than most, and it was fully dark by the time she started her trek across the grounds to the apartment she shared with her father. She could only pray that he had not yet gotten too worried about her. She didn't want to know what he'd put holes in on his way to find her. Still, even knowing there was a possibility he might be getting worried, Selene did not quicken her pace. She needed these quiet few minutes to wash away her troubles. She needed the dark of sky to keep her from thinking about how complicated her life had become since she'd gotten it back. She needed the soft, cool breezes to remind her she was alive, safe and free.

Selene Brodrick was absolutely certain that it was these few minutes of peace on her journey back and forth to the institute every day that were keeping her sane at the moment. That, and the endless paitence and support her father had somehow managed to show since she'd invaded his home and his life.

On this particular night, however, Selene was not to have her precious walk all to herself. Only five minutes after she'd left the lights of the lecture hall behind she heard the scrape of footsteps on the concreate behind her. She stopped dead in her tracks, her heart thumping in her chest. Though she was well aware that some students and staff still made their way about the campus at this time of night, the recent events of her past had made her catious and jumpy in a way she never had been before. She spun, stepping to the side of the path, ready to make a run for it if she had to. Her eyes darted about, trying their best to see through the dark. There were so few light posts on the particular route she took. "Wh...who's there?" She called, trying not to sound nervous, but she was certain the waver in her voice would give her away as frightened.

~Selene Brodrick

[Wuf]

Oleksander worried little about being caught out on the campus after dark. As far as he understood it things were realtivly safe here, besides it was hard to sneak up on him with his powers and with a few of the things the Major had taught him he wouldn't quite be the easy pickings that he might have appeared.

He still wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings though, bad of him he knew, but his mind was still so full from the day he had managed to scrape together for himself. No doubt he would remember it for quite awhile, and the simple fact that he had been invited back was like some dream he couldn't really believe. His shoes scuffed on the pavement as he walked, mostly watching his feet as he did so. This was good.

But a slight sound broke through his reverie just ahead though he might not have looked up if an emotional signature hadn't nearly slammed into him. He felt it before he heard the voice and it was that, not the words, that told him he knew this person. All of his so called teammates he knew by that feeling, each seperate and distinct.

He kept moving until he caught up to where the figure had stopped, turning his head to look at her in the shadows, knowing exactly where she was. Selene always felt so loudly. "I did not mean to frighten you Selene." He spoke it softly, most of his old reserve dropping down onto him again, though there was no mistaking the voice.

[Selene]

Selene's heart pounded harder and harder in her chest, the blood rushing past her ears as the footsteps continued. She recognized the voice, however, as soon as it spoke, even before it spoke her name. Her relief was paramount, so much so that her fear almost seemed to evaporate. She relaxed right away, knowing for sure that she was safe now. Olekzander wouldn't do her any harm, and she knew first hand how good he was at spotting on coming trouble.

There may have been one advantage to the fact that Selene felt things so 'loudly'. Though he'd had to endure her fear, he now got to be enfused with something else, something more than her relief. Clearly, Selene was happy to see him. There was a definit tinge of joy in her now.

"Olekzander!" She greeted him happily, tossing herself across the short distance between them to give him a light, friendly embrace. "I'm so glad to see you! Well.. I guess I can't really see you with it so dark, but if I was going to run into someone I'm certainly glad it's you!" She pulled back and shuffled back and forth on her feet. For a moment she was glad it was dark, as she was certain her cheeks were red from blushing at the moment. He would be able to catch another light flash, embarassment? Guilt? "I... I keep meaning to come and talk to you, but we're, both of us, always so busy. I never really got to properly thank you, and there's so... so much I wanted to say to you ever since I got back."

~Selene Brodrick

[Wuf]

The young man nearly shied like a frightened horse when she came to him and hugged him like that. As if nothing has changed, he thought. And though he felt her joy he had a hard time in feeling it himself. The day had been good, but Selene meant the Institue, and the Major, and... and everything else. He didn't return the hug that was given.

But, she had really been afraid and that was not all that surprising considering everything she had been through so very recently. The least he could do was walk her back like a good boy. He moved, trusting that she would follow. For some reason he really, really didn't want to simply stand there and talk to her. Movement was better; safer.

Oleksander looked away from her, forward down the sidewalk. She thought he was busy... he wondered where she might have gotten that idea from. He decided not to mention it. "It is not important." He dismissed it all with just four frank little words. At least he was willing to give some explanation. "Compaired to everyone else I did not do hardly anything so there is no need to feel you must say something to me."

[Selene]

As far as Selene was concerned, nothing had changed between her and Olekzander. Many other things had changed in her life, but she still considered him a friend. If she had realized he might not feel the same way she might have been slightly mortified. As it was she fell into step beside him, allowing him his space but keeping close enough to retain that feeling of saftey that came with having a familar companion to walk through the darkness with.

"Don't say that." She said softly but firmly. "It is important. You are my friend, and after all that you have done for me, the least I can do is find time out of all the work that's piled up for me to talk to you, to express to you how grateful I am for what you've done. In case you aren't keeping count, this is the second time you've saved my life.

"Besides that, this was your first time ever doing... something like that. No one can expect you to be perfect. And not many people can say they would put themselves in that kind of danger... I mean rushing through bullets to help someone they hardly know..." She let her voice drift off into nothing. She supposed they really shouldn't talk about it in a place where others could overhear.

"Anyway." She said after a slight pause. "No matter what anyone says, I want to thank you. I do appreceate what you've done for me. I just needed for you to know that."

~Selene Brodrick

[Wuf]

Oleksander didn't look back over at her as they walked along, seeing no reason to. He still didn't understand why she felt she needed to speak with him at all. They had gotten her back, it was his duty to do so though perhaps at the time it had been something slightly different. But that wasn't important now.

He wouldn't argue with her though, not even on her next points, which were very, very wrong even if she didn't know it. There was one person who expected him to be perfect and who he had obviously not lived up to their expectations. He had as much as failed.

"I did the wrong thing." Oleksander said simply, though didn't seem to want to persue it really. He had tried to do the right thing, the thing that would help his teammates out, but it hadn't been the thing to do even if he knew it damn well was.

And finally he gave a little shrug of his shoulders, as if still sloughing off her words even as she continued to say them.

"I did my job. That is all."

[Selene]

"We all make mistakes." Selene said quietly. But she left it at that. Clearly he did not want to persue the matter, and if he had made up his mind about how things had happened, she was not going to be able to convince him. She hadn't even been there, after all, for the mistake he was refering too.

She did, however, feel the slightest ting of hurt at his words. Perhaps things had not happened the way she'd understood them too. Perhaps the Institute's young traniees had not been given a choice in the matter of coming to her rescue. Perhaps Olekzander had not actually wanted to be there any more than she had. Perhaps he even resented her for having put him in that kind of situation. She certainly wouldn't have been able to hold the feelings against him. The entire mess had been completely her fault and she couldn't imagine it had been very plesant for Olekzander either.

Remembering Olekzander's particular talent, Selene did him one favour. She did her best to hide this small feeling of hurt, doing her best to squelch it even as it crept up. She couldn't be certain she was successful; she still didn't understand exactly how his ability worked, but she did her best, not feeling that quite as 'loudly' as most of her other emotions.

Several moments passed in silence. Selene wondered what else she could say. Clearly Olekzander wanted no thanks for what he had done for her. She thought the best she could do was let the subject fade away. There had been something else she had wanted to ask him. Something that had been on her list, the one she'd made mentally while she'd been locked away in that tiny room with no concept of time or where she was. The list of things she wanted to experience again or for the first time if she'd ever escaped her prision. Once the longing to ask crept up, she couldn't force it to go away again.

"I've wanted to ask ever since I got back." She said quietly, and she was glad it was dark, as she was blushing. "You... you probably think it's strange or silly. But... but I was wondering... if you might play that beautiful music for me again. I never really got to hear it properly."

~Selene Brodrick

[Wuf]

Oleksander hadn't exactly made up his mind as to how things had happened. The Major had made up his mind as to how things had happened and they'd just sort of gone from there... He didn't exactly have a say in the matter. Not that he could talk about the man in front of his daugther.

But things had been his choice. He had been the one to yell at the Major to be allowed to come after Selene and he didn't regret the decision though quite often he wondered why he had made it for the reasons he had. Foolish of him, he knew. He would have to be sure not to make that same mistake again.

He didn't look at her again as they walked, not finding conversation with her as easy as it had been when they'd first met. Oleksander figured it was mostly his fault in that quarter but being quiet was just easier.

But her question was like a slap and it woke him up. Turning his head he fixed his eyes upon her, but his answer gave her nothing in return. "Why?" There was only one person in the whole of the Institute who'd had any interest in his music before now and he was the only one Oleksander trusted these days to bother playing for, other than himself.

That night he had played had not been a good one, he had been weeping and screaming through his music. So why was she so interested now?

[Selene]

It seemed everything was harder for Selene now. That normal life she'd so wished to return to hadn't been waiting for her when she got home. It had taken her several days to be able to face up to what she had, to be able to start bending the life that was available to her now into some ghost of what she had originally wanted. When she'd been finished rearranging her life, when she'd managed to get as much as possible back under her thumb, she'd still been left with a lot of things she couldn't explain.

Unfortunitly her request to Olekzander was one of them.

Selene was silent for several moments before she responded. She could feel Olekzander's eyes on her, but her own eyes were rivited on the pavement and her feet. She didn't want to give him some sob story. She didn't want him to think she was sad and pathetic and needed his sympathy. What had happened to her had been horrible, yes, but he shouldn't have to experience her misery by proxy. She didn't want a gift given out of pity. That wasn't why she'd asked.

But in the end the only way she could think of to explain herself was to tell the truth. Carefully stowing her emtions in the deepest part of her mind, Selene offered her explaination. She found it surprisingly easy to seperate herself from the emotions. For the first time she was able to talk about a part of her experience without bursting into tears.

"Because it was beautiful." She said quietly. "I know that the things you were feeling that night, I know that the music you were playing was desperate and sad. I know it made me weep because you were weeping, but at it's heart, at it's core it was still beautiful. You painted pictures with that music." She fell silent a moment or two, still not looking at him.

"When I was... away in that small, lonely place, when I didn't think I was ever coming back... all the things in my life that I regreted were laid out at my feet. They were like needles, constantly pricking my skin. And though I tried my hardest to forget, to file all those things away and seperate them from myself, they clung to me until I acknowledged them, until they'd solidified themselves into a list of things I had to do if I ever got home, so that if the time comes for me to... lose everything, I won't have to carry those regrets with me any more.

"Some of them I understood. Wanting to appologize to my father. Wanting to tell someone I care about what he really means to me. Wanting to feel the ocean. See the stars. Of course the caged bird wants its freedom.

"Some of them I can't explain. I don't know why the desires are so strong nor why they came to me in those dark moments when I was all alone with myself. What I ask of you is selfish, I know that. Perhaps I have no right to ask anything of you at all after what you've done for me. I only know that while I was there, I regreted never hearing you play music you enjoy. I regreted never getting a chance to hear you play music for fun, for the enjoyment of it, for the pleasure."

Finally her eyes came up from the ground to meet his. "Paint me your picture, Olekzander. Weave your magic around me just once so that I can see how beautiful it is." She fell silent then and tore her eyes away, unable to say the last part of what she was thinking outloud. So that when I die, I can look back and remember that I truly experenced something beautiful once.

[Wuf]

Oleksander listened to every word she had to say, though it seemed the moment she looked at him and their eyes met he looked away almost instantly, back down at his shoes. He did not have a way with words the way most others seemed to in this place, though some of it could clearly be blamed on language. He understood it, though.

But she simply didn't understand how hard it was for him. The thing he had always loved in his life, the thing he lived for, wasn't the same anymore. This... gift, or whatever it was that was inside of him did something to people. It forced them to see what he wanted, didn't ask or beg. It corrupted. He no longer knew if it was even his own hand that played. Perhaps his ascendancy addled his own mind as well. And no one understood just how close that knowledge came to destroying him.

And then there was Selene...

He had thought for awhile that perhaps she might be different, that maybe... But all of that meant nothing now. Why she needed to come to him for beauty, he did not think he would ever be able to understand. This was going to hurt him horribly and somehow he doubted he would be able to give her what she wanted in the end.

He said nothing for a very long time, perhaps making her think that he had stopped talking to her altogether, but when the lights of the Institute finally illuminated them, he paused as he opened the door for her speaking so softly only she would be able to hear him. "Very well."

[Selene]

Had Selene and Olekzander both been speaking their true thoughts, they may have found they thought and felt in a similar manner. Selene too had just come face to face with finding herself a different person than she'd always thought she'd been. On top of that the fear that certain relationships were not built on the true feelings she'd thought they were had just begun to take root in her mind; when the time came for her to face it things were not going to go well. But one thing Selene had become very good at since her return from her terrible ordeal was running away from the problems she didn't wish to face. Selene had not yet chosen to stare her ascendancy in the face.

She had just given up on ever getting a reply out of Olekzander when he spoke again. Perhaps something had happened while she was gone that had distanced her from the Ukrainian though she'd never meant for that to happen. Perhaps the anger that she'd so feared from her father and from Mark had actually taken up residence in the person she'd least expected to be angry with her. Or perhaps she was simply not privy to the intricate details of the man's life. Whatever the case she had just opened her mouth to retract the request compeltely when Olekzander's voice agreeing with her request brought her up short.

For a brief moment she stopped and stared at him in the light that poured into the darkness from the Institute's windows. One of those windows, she could locate exactly which one from the outside just by looking she knew the place so well, was the window in her father's apartment that looked down from his living room on the world outside. Was he standing in it now? Was he waiting for her to get home and worrying that something bad had happened? She knew she shouldn't keep him waiting any longer. Though he had never said anything to her, she suspected her abduction had affected him more deeply than anyone would ever know. She didn't want to worry him ever again, if she could possibly avoid it. There was a part of her that wanted to tell Olekzander to forget it, that she was being silly and selfish and that she couldn't expect him to do anything to set her regrets at ease. Part of her wanted to make up a silly excuse about her passionate words, to say that she had been lying or that it wasn't as important as she'd thought it was. He seemed reluctant, and she somehow felt she'd backed him into a corner.

But every word she'd spoken had been true. And the deepest part of herself was so longing to hear his music, that in the end herselfishness won out, and she forced the edges of her mouth to turn up into a smile. Once she had gone through the motions, the expression took on some real joy. She was, after all, thrilled that he was going to play for her. She was excited. And... relieved.

"Thank you, Olekzander." She said, and it was clear by the tone of her voice and the emotions he would be able to pluck from her that she sincerely meant what she said. "I look forward to it. But don't rush, okay? Whenever you want to play for me. Just call me, or come over to my dad's place, okay?"

~Selene Brodrick