[ closed ] i wanna be an idle teen

[immuno]

CHARACTERS: LYDIA MARTIN and SCOTT MCCALL
LOCATION: O₂ gardens
WARNINGS: Death, gaslighting, Peter Hale
SUMMARY: Lydia convinces Scott to show her where they buried Peter so she can rest easy knowing he's really dead and not lurking.
NOTES: Pre-finale event

[ "I just need to be sure."

That was how she'd explained it when she was insisting that Scott show her proof, something tangible and real that would affirm that Peter was dead and gone. No more tricks, no more manipulations. Whatever had led her to betraying them again before on the Tranquility, she needed something real to prove that she wouldn't fall prey to those machinations again.

Even without the memories of her previous time on the ship, she could remember being twisted and extorted by him before. It wasn't something she wanted to repeat, not for anything.

They headed down into the gardens, Lydia more quiet than usual, despondent in a way that she wasn't often, but driven, stomping in high heels through the overgrowth as if she were the one leading the charge right up until Scott stopped short. She turned to him, glanced down at what looked like just another patch of garden. It made sense, with all the time that had passed, that it had grown over, but it was one more nail in the coffin of doubt that it looked so pedestrian. ]

Is this it?

Comments

[workout]

[ Scott used to spend a lot of time in the gardens. That had changed quickly the last time he'd been here, and since he's been back, he's mostly avoided them. The initial reluctance is as much about that as it is about the need to shield Lydia from a past that isn't hers (and a past that is), but it doesn't actually take much insisting.

He understands. Not how it helps, or how it matters, exactly; but he knows it does. Knows it would make a difference to him, too. So he caves, and they spend most of the trip to the gardens in silence, hers determined and his relenting.

His assumption that he'd be able to find it on sight is wrong. It's grown over a lot since the last time he'd come anywhere near this part of the ship, and in the end it's instincts and scent that take charge. When he comes to a stop near a thicket, his eyes are narrow, focused. ]

Yeah.

[ He nods towards the dense foliage, the small patch of ground visible to the left of it. It doesn't look anything like a grave site. It's grown over, the roots of the bushes probably laced through it — not great thoughts. ]

Right here.

[immuno]

It's not marked.

[ She observes, as if she expected otherwise. Peter Hale doesn't deserve more than a shallow grave, never has. But some parts of Cora and Derek surely care for him. Family is family. Not enough to visit, or enough to talk to Lydia about what had happened with him.

Slowly, she crouches, keeping her knees bent in front of her so that the fall of her skirt doesn't become immodest. One hand reached out to brush away some of the foliage. Dirt sticks under her nails like Peter sticks under her skin. Deep in thought, she never looks at Scott, never once glances away from the grave. ]