Loop Two

[wipeawaythedebt]

When he wakes up it's slowly, his neck screaming and his mouth tasting the wrong end of a horse. It's a familiar, if somewhat disorienting feeling. The kind of feeling he used to have waking up after a night of gambling at the saloon down the street, after passing out on his desk with a bottle in his hand. But that was before Columbia, before her and... wait a minute. Didn't he just do this? Shouldn't he be...

"Elizabeth! Alana!"

Standing up, he fights the urge to sway and maybe lose the contents of his stomach as he heads towards the door. He's not gone completely crazy has he? They were just here, he knows they were just here. Pausing at the edge of his desk, he pulls over the newspaper. Same date, 1912. It doesn't make any sense. None of this does. Has something gone wrong with one of Elizabeth's tears? Have they gone rogue somehow, like she can't control them anymore?

He's got to figure this out, "ELIZABETH!"

Comments

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth could only stare at Lutece with a hard, untrusting gaze. His appearance to begin with had been unnerving. To see him show up again was bad enough, but he also appeared to not know who they were. If he had been part of this in the way they were - whatever this was - wouldn't he know them?

Or was he pretending not to know?

Her gaze shifted to Booker, waiting to see what he was going to do. It seemed Lutece was there for him again, after all.

[wipeawaythedebt]

"Mr. DeWitt, we do have a schedule of sorts to keep. Although the timeline does seem to have gotten a bit... confused."

Booker watches as Lutece's eyes glance over to Elizabeth for a moment and he moves to stand between them. He may be shit at everything else, but he'll go to hell before he lets Lutece get his hands on her.

"No." He speaks slowly, not really knowing if this is the right thing to do or a terrible mistake, but he guesses making the same decision over and over again isn't going to help anyone. "Changed my mind. I'm no taking you deal."

"We've been over this, DeWitt, your debt-"

"Is mine, I'll sort it myself."

[professionalcuriosity]

It's an inappropriate time to smile, but Alana can't help it, just a little bit. In spite of all her protests to the contrary, there is a definitely place in her heart where the professional and the personal overlap. Her clients are important to her, genuinely so. As alarming and uncertain as all this may be, Booker's words matter, are significant.

Whether or not they'll get this sorted out and get to talk about it is a different matter altogether.

"You heard him, Mr. Lutece," she says evenly. "I think it's time for you to leave."

[cagedlamb]

She was admittedly surprised to hear Booker more or less shut him down completely. It was a good surprise, one that she was quick to try to help back him up along with Alana.

"Yes, leave," Elizabeth echoed, staring at the man. He was as unsettling as ever, and she was beginning to wonder if he had something to do with all of this somehow.

[wipeawaythedebt]

The man in the suit smiles, almost as if he's heard this all before and with a slight shrug of the shoulders, he replaces his hat and heads for the door. "Very well, Mr. DeWitt, the debt is yours once again. Perhaps we'll meet again." Tipping the hat a bit as he passes Alana and Elizabeth he adds, "Ladies, a pleasure as always. Or will be. Perhaps both."

Booker just watches him leave.