I know, nothing ever keeps you safe for sure

[pitied]

CHARACTERS: Claire Saunders and Alex Summers
LOCATION: Med Bay
WARNINGS: None?
SUMMARY: Claire asks Alex what happened when she was in doll state.
NOTES: None.


It wasn't an easy thing, asking Alex to come down. But it's been a few weeks, and she knows she needs to face it. Especially since she's been running into people who saw her as Whiskey. It's something she tries to ignore, but knowing Topher is up to something (no matter what he says, what he tries to tell other people), it's enough to make her confront this. She had to make sure it didn't happen again.

She's sitting at one of the desks, a file in her hand. It's what she had been doing since she came back. Work. It was what she knew how to do, but with most of the passengers under, there wasn't much to do. She'd been over this particular file three times. She just needed to keep busy, keep from thinking. Everything in her wanted to run, but there was no escape on the ship. Everything just stayed bottled.

Comments

[pitied]

She didn't know what to say to that, her eyes dropping to the floor for a moment. Kindness wasn't something often found in the Dollhouse. "Thank you, Alex," she offered a genuine smile, still not sure how to process this. She did believe him, but it was something that would weigh heavy on her for a time.

[redhotsummers]

"Eh...you'd do the same for me, right?" Alex felt he should give her a hug now, or something like that--but unlike Whiskey, Claire was much less tactile...and he just wasn't sure she'd appreciate that.

[pitied]

In all honesty she probably wouldn't have until now. She nodded though. Somehow she'd managed to find someone who cared about her for no other reason than it was her he wanted to care about. "I take it Wheatley and Topher weren't exactly pleased about your presence. Did you know about him before?" She wasn't sure how much she told him.

[redhotsummers]

"No I didn't." Alex shrugged, "But I made it abundantly clear that until they could help you, they weren't allowed fucking near you. Both of them are scum bags, and they are really lucky they're still breathing, right now." The amount of violence that Alex wanted to do to them, but he didn't care. The selfishness and idiocy those two showed him was too much.

[pitied]

She sighed for a moment. "I'm not his biggest fan, but Topher-- he's not good in crises. He sort of thinks he has a handle on things until things explode in his face even more." Whatever he had planned for her, she knew it wasn't by malice. She was still upset with him, but Alex didn't know him like she did.

"I don't know Wheatley, but he seems more a lapdog than anything else. Not worth it."

[redhotsummers]

"And you think it's good to go easy on a guy like that? Those are the kind of guys who get ships blown up, Claire." Alex snorted, shaking his head. "They could have left you like that. They caused it, and they might not have been able to fix it."

[pitied]

"No. If Topher left me like that, it would get out what he does. Most people on the ship seem to like him, because they don't know. He wouldn't risk that. His reputation is everything to him," Claire replied, pressing her lips together. "Besides we still don't know what he was planning. Killing him might have only been a domino effect."

[redhotsummers]

Alex nods, frustrated. "I know just--" He ran a hand through his hair, slumping back in his chair. "I just don't like people getting away with this sort of thing. It isn't right."

[pitied]

"My entire existence isn't right, Alex. Sometimes things aren't that black and white," she told him, straightening. She didn't like it, but there wasn't anything they could really do. Besides what crime was actually committed?

[redhotsummers]

"Yeah, and I wish you didn't think like that. We're all freaks in one way or another. I don't think you aren't 'right' just for whatever the hell they did to you." Alex shot back, blue eyes clear.

[pitied]

"I shouldn't exist, Alex. It is wrong. That technology? The ability to wipe away who a person is and writing up a program to a fake person? That capability is just wrong. All I am is some sort of sticker stuck to some doll." It wasn't about being a freak or being different. It was the morality of technology and the consequences of it.

[redhotsummers]

"Yeah, well who is to say anyone should exist? I'm a fucking freak mutation." Alex shook his head, not allowing her to reduce herself like that. "You aren't a damn sticker. You aren't fake. I don't care what they've put in your head. You're Claire and I know who you are."