What?

[ooc: Sam is thentheres_me and is mine and abused as such. Don is det_don_flack he's just mentioned, but I still was very nice to him]

The streets were a bit busier now that the weather had begun to warm up. A casual cross breeze would catch the ends of her hair as she pulled at a strand across her face tucking it behind her ear. She smiled at the gentleman that held the door open for her as she moved into the store, keeping to herself as she wandered down the aisles. Most times she didn't even need to get anything, but it was the fact that she could go out, that there wasn't much worry as to what was going on. There was a twinge of guilt that settled in the back of her mind, but she often found it easier to push it back rather than focus on it.

The woman had caught her eye earlier when she crossed at the end of the aisle Elle had been in, but she hadn't been able to place her. Of all the people she'd run across in life, as well as in files, Elle was never sure who was actually safe to approach. Walking up to the wrong person would put her at risk along with Don and everything he worried about would be that much closer to coming to pass. The second time the woman smiled at her apologetically while she waited for Elle to walk in front of her. The smile was more than familiar, it gave her a sign that she was an unfamiliar face, Elle was unknown to the woman. Part of her could've thought that it was a good thing, but she couldn't help but let that small seed of curiosity place in a bit deeper.

As the woman laughed and shook her head insisting that they stop meeting like this, Elle had to smile as well.

"Sorry, I swear I know you. It must sound a bit odd, but you have a familiar face." Elle knew she sounded a bit odd, and the woman looked amused at least. "It's your smile, I know I've seen it before."

If Elle was honest with the woman she'd also say that her eyes were familiar too, but that was a bit too odd, even for Elle to admit.

"Well I've lived in the city for my whole life? You've probably seen me around?"

Elle contemplated that, but it was more than that it was her smile, and not many complete strangers spotted a smile that easily. Shaking her head she bit on her bottom lip, "I really don't think that's it. I'm Elle, Elle Bishop?" Offering a name Elle thought maybe there would be a connection, that it would all be revealed but the woman had no clue who she was, and the name didn't help at all.

"Sorry Elle, but the name doesn't ring a bell. I'm Sam though, Samantha Flack."

Elle laughed, which startled Sam a bit, her hand going up to excuse her slight outburst. Shaking her head she smirked, "I know where I've seen your smile before. On Don's desk, he has a picture of the two of you from some party?" Elle didn't know the details behind the picture, but she knew it had been on his desk since she'd met him. Don had explained about his family late one night after work one night, and Elle had put the connection of his sister to the picture on his desk. It was the first time she actually realized that she wasn't his girlfriend, and while she was happy then, she wasn't actually going to mention that now.

Samantha looked shocked as well, "You know Don?"

Elle winced slightly, she knew that Don had caught up with her recently and then opted to let her have her space. Elle hadn't asked about her, but knew that Don was at least checking in on her. The realization now was that Don hadn't actually been making his presence known.

"Yeah... I, I actually live with him. It's a long story though," Elle tried to reassure her.

Sam laughed shaking her head, "Yeah I figured it would be. Though good for him, I told him he needed to find a girl."

"Well it didn't exactly start out that way, but... you should stop by. I'm sure he'd like to see you." Elle nodded shifting the bottle of shampoo from one hand to the other. It was the only thing she'd actually thought to pick up.

Laughing Sam shook her head, "Yeah, I'm sure he'd love that."

Elle glanced to her, "You never know? I don't know, he's had a rough few weeks." Elle shrugged, "I think he'd like to see you, I mean the fact that I only recognized you from a picture on his desk? That needs to get fixed."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Sam paused thinking about it, "Shit! Does he still have the picture of me from Christmas like ten years ago? It was on the wall near the kitchen last I was there."

Thinking about it Elle shrugged, "Maybe? I spend a lot of time there but I haven't actually taken notice of much of his stuff." Sam shook it off dismissing the thought, but now Elle was curious. "You could come by? See for yourself?"

Shrugging Sam glanced to her basket of things, "Yeah, maybe. I should probably finish up. Tell Don I said hi though, yeah?"

Nodding Elle smiled again, "It was good to meet you though, and honestly... think about talking to him. I know he'd like that."

Sam nodded again and smiled waving to Elle as she headed back down the next aisle. Elle exhaled glancing to the bottle of shampoo and turning on heel to go check out. Even though she had just met Don's sister for the first time the only thing she was thinking about was if there was that picture on the wall, and how growing up she knew the only picture on her father's desk had been one of him and a fish.

The way the air hits her chest when she runs out of the apartment doesn't take anything away from her. If the season was different the biting wind would've made it harder for her to breathe. It could've pushed against her, forcing her to take in air that was too cold, too strong for her lungs to handle. Instead it's just the outdoors, and the van is supposed to be a refuge from what she's running from. The van though isn't that at all, it's the starting point and the ending point of what she's done. Her arm pulls a bit at the shoulder when she opens and shuts the back doors so quickly, moving to the monitors to see if he's really going to do it.

What she sees though isn't anything she wanted to see at all, and it sits heavy in her chest and rings a bit in her ears to hear how interested Bennet is in what's going on in the building. She could've stopped it, she could've done something differently.

This act, this violent thing is on her hands now. Dropping her chin her hair falls from behind her ears and brushes against her cheek knowing that this isn't the first time someone has been harmed because of her, but this is different... this wasn't something she did on accident, something that happened because of her ability. This is simply because she pushed... she pushed and made someone that might've understood her... that might've...

The click of Bennet's pen disrupts her thoughts as he's making notations on the clipboard, trying to get on file what he's seeing.

Elle just wants to forget.