486/Yet Another Awkward Drive Home

Yet Another Awkward Drive Home
Date of Scene:	13 March 2020
Location:	Int: Terry's Car (night).
Synopsis:	Sometimes the road more travelled is the hard road - but at least it ends in pizza.
Cast of Characters:	Colette O'Connail, Terry O'Neil

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Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "What the--?"

    Terry's words had been the first spoken by either of them since they got in the car. Almost the first since the whole /gun/ thing had happened.

    "Just shut the fuck up, Terry" is Colette's answer. She's silent a few moments more, then: "No. Wait, take a left just ahead and pull over. Your hands are beginning to shake. Adrenaline come-down. It would be fucking embarassing to have you kill yourself in a car crash after that. Let me drive instead. No arguments. It might start hitting you hard in a few minutes."

    There's a long sigh from Colette.

    "I'm really sorry, Terry. My fault. I'm not... it just didn't occur to me that he would be that stupid. I'm just..." She gives a shake of her head. "It should have occurred to me that it was a possibility. Just didn't occur to me that anyone /that/ dumb and suicidal would be in the position he is. It should have been a walk in the park, and it wasn't, because I..." she stops suddenly and gives a sharp shake of her head. "Here. Left here."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry takes a sharp left, all to aware that his hands ARE shaking, and that he's feeling that strange sensation that always follows a burst of adrenaline. Crashing. It's not fun, he wouldn't recommend it.

The car comes to a stop by the side of the road after the left turn, but Terry doesn't get out of the car. Instead, he stares ahead, hands gripping the wheel.

"Were you /ever/ planning on telling me you're a fucking ninja?" he says, his lips a thin line.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Don't be an idiot Terry, I'm not a ninja. I just like to be prepared."

    Colette sits there a few moments, and sighs again. "Look, I thought there was a /tiny/ possibility things would go south, so I brought a gun. I didn't tell you, because if I had you'd have been nervous going in there. When I heard him speaking through the phone, it was obvious the guy was a moron who thought way too much of himself. I didn't like the way it was going, so I got the gun and went to the house to check on you. When he... when he took you outside I knew I couldn't hesitate. Idiots like him always do. That's all that happened."

    Colette hops out of the car, closes the door behind her, and walks around to the driver's door. She knocks on the window and says "Come on Terry. Move over. You're not in a state to drive."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry stays silent for a few instants, then slides out of the car and walks around it to sit on the passenger seat.

He crosses his arms. His green eyes are glaring at the windshield, which was rather unfair because it had done nothing to him.

"I've moved over," he grumbles.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette climbs in and starts the car. She pulls out and heads back to the main route. She must know another route. "Okay. Go on. Say it. You were right. Should have stuck to the stake-outs. It's okay. Go on. Say it. I was wrong. I misjudged the situation. I admit it."

    There's an obvious note of anger in her voice. Given what has happened, taking her at her word and telling her she was wrong doesn't feel like the best idea.

    Colette stops the car at the junction, and doesn't take the turn, sitting there in silence. There's an impatient horn blare from the car behind. She starts the car moving, yanks the wheel around and takes a rather abrupt turn - back towards Westchester.

    Colette rolls her neck. "He's an idiot. He's a complete fucking amateur. No fucking idea. Thinks he's a big man. In two days he'll decide the whole things was a.... I shoulda just put a bullet in his head right then." She shakes her head angrily. "He'll be right back there. Two days, at most. Just the type to do something that fucking..."

    Colette hits the brakes. An outraged horn doppler's past, far too close. Colette takes a deep breath, checks the mirror, and pulls the car around in a tight turn and starts heading back towards Metropolis in silence.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry remains silent while engaging in this back-and-forth, at several points grabbing onto the seat. This was not doing anything to bring his adrenaline down!

"I think you've just seen a brief glimpse of the world from /my/ eyes, Colette."

He pauses, "Do you think I was consciously taking the easy road? There's no such thing as a straight answer when it comes to stuff that involves people. People are messy. But everybody thinks there's a sure-fire way that won't get a gun pointed at you..."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette does not answer. Her eyes are fixed on the road. Her driving, thankfully, seems an awful lot safer than it had for the first mile or so of the journey. The road joins the interstate, and Colette stays silent through Throg's Neck, over the bridge, and well into Queens.

    "If I killed him, it would end this. Fifty-fifty he'll just start straight up again." Her voice is a lot calmer now. Possibly too calm. There's no hint of emotion in her voice. "You want a sure-fire way to stop something? Death, Terry. That works. So tell me. Tell me in what possible way the universe isn't a cleaner place without him in it? So let's not talk about taking the easy road, because this is the hard road. And I don't even know why I'm on it."

    Colette takes a deep breath. "So, you learned what you wanted to learn. About your dad. Not sure it helps you any though."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry gives Colette a meaningful look. "That idiot thinks he knows who should live and who should die. And he thinks he has the right to act accordingly. So, you kill him- once you take care of him, who takes care of you?"

He looks out the window, "I think that's why you're on the hard road. Because you know what taking the easy one would make you. The universe isn't about being clean, anyways."

He leans back in his seat. "In a clean and perfectly regulated universe, boys die of deadly diseases, they don't have their father inject them with an experimental serum and suddenly turn into a mint-colored mini animal kingdom. That's messy. Gar is a total, complete mess."

His voice sounds very quiet, next. "... and I think he's great."

He blinks, and looks over to Colette again. "My father..."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "You have no fucking idea what taking the easy road would make me, Terry." Angry Colette has returned, but goes again as soon as the sentence is out of her mouth. Her voice turns wry. "That's a piss-poor justification, Terry. The universe isn't clean, and you give me an example of how much better it would be if it was, doesn't that suggest I ought to do what I can to make it cleaner?"

    "I'd noticed," Colette follows up a few moments later. "You thinking he's great, I mean. Are you... going to tell him what happened tonight? Garfield. About you... the whole being held at gunpoint thing. Again. 'Cos if you do I have the feeling he's not going to be happy about not being there to keep you safe."

    The miles pass by. In the night sky above, a plane comes in low, preparing to land at JFK, close enough to make out the dots of light of the passenger windows. Behind each window a passenger, distant, enclosed, unknown.

    "We didn't really learn anything, did we? About your father."

    "I mean apart from that he hangs with some nasty people and shoots folks in the head."

    " Think he meant /literally/ a monster?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I don't want to make him unhappy right at this moment. He's got enough on his plate." The redhead crosses his arms and sighs. "Let's pick some pizza up on the way back. My excuse will be that we were out to eat. And That I brought him some."

He stays quiet for a few seconds after Colette asks her question, and he purses his lips. "Literally a monster. My dad, somehow having access to those. And apparently using them to hunt crime bosses?"

"It doesn't make sense, doesn't it?"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette turns and gives Terry a long look. About as long as she feels comfortable with her eyes off the road, then back to driving. In the orange-tinted light coming through the windows of the car, her eyes seem even darker than normal, like her irises are huge.

    "I dunno Scoops, kind of does. "

    "I... think you should tell him. You should be honest with him. Even if it's something that will upset him. I mean yeah, the pizzas. But..." she shakes her head. "I think he deserves your honesty. I mean. It was my fault. He can shout at me instead."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I'll tell him when he has recovered, then," Terry says, not noticing Colette's eyes, because he's looking at the road ahead, "He's recovering from an injury right now. As soon as he can walk on his own, I'll tell him."

He seems lost in his own thoughts for a few seconds. "As to what he deserves- he deserves a lot more than he's getting. For all he has lost, and to still being able to be how he is? I wish I didn't seem to be one of the few people who apparently sees that."

"He deserves so much more. So. I'm getting him a pizza," Terry says, realizing how silly it sounds. He chuckles. "Poor devil. He has to make do with whatever I can offer, which isn't that much."

A few moments later, he says "My father having monsters kind of makes sense? Well... where is he now? If he uses them to hunt criminals, why has his trail gone cold? Why hasn't anyone heard from him recently?"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "I have no fucking idea Terry. I'm not a detective. Or a ninja." Colette smirks. Her shoulders start shaking and pretty soon she can't hold it in any more. She laughs for a good minute."

    "Fucking Ninja. Jesus, Terry."

    "You know," Colette says, once her breath back. "If he deserves so much, be honest with him right now. Remember the whole thing about not taking easy roads? You want him to trust you. So don't hold anything important back. I mean, you've got to trust him too, right?

    Colette flashes Terry a grin. "The pizza is a good idea. But let's make sure it's the best pizza in town, yeah? If he deserves so much more, then he at least deserves that. If you're worried about the cost, I can always go back and ask Nico for some cash for food. I have a feeling he wouldn't turn me down."

    Colette starts laughing again.