Late night, craziness-induced fic. Also, I had just watched Apt Pupil. So it's not my fault. Really.
Know Thyself
by Elizabeth Wilde
"I see I have a new visitor today." The man smiled, leaned back in his chair, hands folded across his stomach.
The girl moved closer, sat in the chair across from him. "Yeah. Figured you could use a change o' scenery, so to speak."
"How thoughtful of you. Tell me, my dear, aren't you the least bit angry at me for what I did to you? To your little friends?"
"Yeah. But Ah know why you did it." The girl's brown eyes reveal nothing and everything, staring from across the table and from years past. "Ah know you probably better'n you do."
"I find that difficult to believe, mutation or not. I have always been quite honest with myself."
"So you know that you agree with him."
The man straightened, pale blue eyes narrowed and calculating. "With him?"
"With Charles. You always have. You know there's hope."
"I know no such thing, girl."
"You do. You're just too damn scared that if you admit it, you might have to change." The girl leaned forward across the table, hands folded in a strange imitation of the man she addressed. "You've hated so much for so long that it scares the hell out of you to think that there might be more. That," she said, leaning back again, "and ya don't wanna say yer sorry."
The man's lip curled in disgust, though whether it was with himself or the girl was unclear. "You know nothing."
"Ah know everything." Her eyes narrowed and a slow smile spread across her face, which suddenly seemed incongruously young. "He worries about you."
The man laughed, a cold sound devoid of joy. "He worries for everyone."
"He still cares about you."
"And for all mankind," the man replied bitterly.
"You in particular. The night it happened after Ah got the blood washed off, Ah couldn't sleep. Know what the first thing Ah did was? Ah went to him. Ah called him Charles and Ah talked as if Ah'd known him mah entire life. Because you did. It was the same after he woke up. ‘Cept then he could talk back. And do you know what he did?"
Feigning impatience, the man pursed his lips. "What did he do?"
"He cried. He cried and he asked me why."
"And what did you tell him, my dear?"
"You told him it was because you had to, because ya didn't know any other way."
"Ah, but I was already in this cell."
"Not all of you."
"I see."
"No you don't. Maybe ya will eventually, though." The girl stood, waved to the guard in the booth above them. "He forgives you. So do Ah."
"Why thank you. However could I have lived without hearing that."
The girl smiled, a smile that knew the gratitude behind the pain. "Maybe Ah'll come back sometime."
The man hesitated, frowned. "Don't."
"Ah think Ah will."
The guard arrived, took the girl's arm. The man held up a hand. "Please-"
The girl smiled again, shook her head. "Ah'll come back sometime." She walked down the hallway, out of the plastic prison, leaving the man alone again.