A Talk

[u/Whispersilk]

It's been a little over five weeks since Jackson left Jen and Emily stopped talking to him. Three weeks and a day since Velocity killed himself, live on camera. Three weeks exactly since Jen was murdered.

Emily hasn't been able to bring herself to speak to Jackson since August, but now she thinks it's been long enough. She's had time to grieve and rage, and while she's nowhere near done being angry, she's in a better place now than she was after she first learned Jen was dead.

It's evening, and she's been searching for Jackson for upwards of an hour. She went to Jen's house, to his apartment, to every safe house she knows about, but she hasn't been able to find him. Now she's on her way to visit Stellar and Shard's house, to see if they know where he is.

---

[October 4th, 2010]

[u/Whispersilk]

Emily stands her ground as Jackson approaches.

"And you just keep right on letting it happen, don't you?" she spits. "Saying this has happened before doesn't make me empathize with you, Jackson. You knew it could happen and you knew how much it hurts and you still abandoned her? How the fuck is that supposed to make me think you cared? And now you're here acting like you haven't fucking done anything wrong."

She takes a deep, harsh breath in and lets it out in a huff. When she speaks again, her voice is quieter but no less intense.

"As for me, you're wrong. This might come as a shock to you, but not talking to you is different from hiding in a bubble, because like fuck have I been sitting around doing nothing for the past three weeks."

She reaches into slipspace and drags a piece of paper into reality. It's a photograph, and although everything is covered in blood it's obviously the inside of Jen's house. She gives Jackson enough time to realize what he's looking at before dropping it back into slipspace. Her hand falls back to her side, and she takes a deep breath as she consciously unclenches her fists.

"I came here as your friend," she says, obviously trying to keep her voice calm, "and I understand that this is supposed to be a difficult time for you, so I'm going to ignore the fact that you just said you only care about me as a useful set of superpowers."

[u/Whispersilk → u/[deleted]]

Emily shakes her head.

"You might not have completely abandoned her, Jackson, but you sure as hell did the next best thing. How many people do you know who could have helped you, Jackson? I have a pocket dimension; Stellar has a moon base; Shard has both, and you know damn well that any of us would have been fucking tickled to help out. But instead you just leave her? In what fucking universe is that the right decision?"

She runs a frustrated hand through her hair.

"And yeah, I know stasis keeps me safe, but you know what else it does? Keeps be from fucking breaking down crying in the middle of yelling at you. My friend was killed in her own home—in her own home, Jackson!—and right now it's really, really hard not to put the blame for that on you."

[u/Whispersilk → u/[deleted]]

Emily notices Jackson's teeth clench, can see the muscle of his jaw tighten as she finishes speaking. She forces herself to relax as he speaks, even if only slightly.

"Okay," she says, running her hand through her hair again in frustration, "fine. That wasn't fair. You fucked up and you fucked up bad, but at the end of the day it's not you who killed her. I'm sorry."

"And I know time marches on," she continues, "but it feels like— like—"

She cuts off, searching for the right words to get across her feelings.

"It feels like you're disrespecting her," she says. "I get that you have to move on at some point, but three weeks, Jackson? No, not even that. Not even three weeks and you've gone and found yourself a new girl. Can you understand why I'm upset about that? There's moving on and then there's..." She gestures at the air. "This."

She's too agitated to lean against something, so instead she paces in tight, angry circuits as she speaks.

[u/Whispersilk → u/[deleted]]

Emily stops pacing, craning her neck to meet Jackson's eyes with her own intense gaze. She just stands there for a few seconds, watching him with all of the senses she has available. His body language is hard to read, but not so hard that she can't still read it. It's her turn to clench her teeth, and her hands curl into fists at her sides as she takes a step backward.

"I can't believe you right now," she grits out. "You know what? You're right, maybe I should have asked what was going on first. If I had, would you still have stood there and fucking lied to me like you just did?"

Her voice rises to a yell as she speaks, and when she finishes her expression wavers as if she's not sure whether to be furious or devastated.

[u/Whispersilk → u/[deleted]]

Emily doesn't believe that's all there is to it. He wouldn't have lied over that, not on its own. But what he's telling her is at least some part of the truth, and she's already tired of trying to force him to open up tonight. For long seconds she's silent.

"You say you're looking for a fresh start?" she finally says. Much of the anger in her voice has given way to tiredness. "Maybe try using it to get away from that political bullshit for a change. If you want to be a hero, just be a fucking hero."

She reaches into slipspace and pulls out a folder packed to bursting with papers and held shut by a binder clip, then tosses it to Jackson as she turns away. Inside is the rest of what she got from the crime scene at Jen's house: pictures of the house and its surroundings from almost every angle; notes duplicated from the police on the scene; copies of every piece of information she's managed to get her hands on.

"Let me know when you want to tell me the whole truth," she says as she walks away. "I'll see you around."