The camera slowly fades in, hearing the sounds of deep breathing and running water. Major Crowe is seen sleeping in a hotel bed, with bandages wrapped around his bare chest, down one arm and taped to his cheek. Blood has soaked into some of the bandages, but it is not dripping through, indicating that he has been patched up and is out of immediate danger.
Slowly the camera trails from the Major's sleeping figure to see Kiera in the bathroom, kneeling over the bath tub. She is rinsing her hair out under the running water, the water flowing away tinted with the hair dye she had just used. The blue and green of her hair has been covered with dark auburn, making Kiera look both older and more vulnerable. As she turned off the water, she sits back on her heels and sighs, towelling off her hair. Wrapped around her abdomen is a bandage similar to the Major's and it too is stained with blood. Her left arms is covered in thick bandages, soaking wet now. Kiera's movements are stiff and slow, as if she is in pain, and dark bruises mark her body from a swollen black eye, to a band of bruises around her neck.
Kiera pulls on clothing that looks different from the pieces she normally wears. There are simple black pants, a grey long sleeved t-shirt and running shoes, no sign of anything that once had been worn by her fiance. She pauses and fingers the ring on a chain around her neck. She pulls it off from around her neck and slides the ring onto her ring finger. The camera hears Kiera laugh, but it is not a happy sound. Several tears drip down her face as she stares down at her ring, spinning around her now skinnier finger. It no longer fits.
[Kiera]: "Oh god JD. What have I done?" Kiera's voice is an anguished whisper. "I need you right now..."
The camera sees tears tracking down Kiera's cheeks. She walks out of the bathroom and pauses at the foot of the Major's bed. She has yet to wipe away the tears and just stares at the bandages wrapped around him.
[Kiera]: whispering "I'm so sorry." The camera watches Kiera walk out the hotel door.
The camera swings to watch Kiera walking out the hotel room, but it is a flash back, as Kiera's hair is still blue and green. Behind her the Major follows, no evidence of the injuries marring his movement. They are both relaxed and at ease as they jog off, dressed for morning PT. The conversation the camera hears in inconsequential chatter, discussing the routine fitness excursion they are undertaking. Kiera and the Major go for a warm up run, jogging around despite the rain pouring down on them, chasing everyone else indoors. Kiera is having less trouble keeping up with the Major than in previous runs seen.
They reach a park and the Major directs Kiera over to the jungle gym section and the camera sees her jump up and grab one of the monkey bars. Her feet dangle over the ground and she is trying to pull herself up, but can't get her chin over the bar. The camera hears her cursing as she struggles but Kiera refuses to let go until the Major grabs the back of her belt and yanks so she has to drop or lose her pants.
[Crowe]: "You're too stubborn. You need to learn when to keep pushing and when to let go sir."
[Kiera]: panting a little and looking angry "I can do it dammit!" before the Major can interject, she has jumped up and grabbed the bar again. Once more she is unable to get her chin up. The Major wraps his arms around her middle and walks forward, forcing Kiera to let go as he carries her away from the mokey bars. He sets her down near the slide.
[Crowe]: "Sit ups sir."
The camera watches as Kiera drops onto her back and tries to beat the clock, doing as many sit ups as she can while the camera watches, counting down a minute. Afterwards Kiera flops over onto her stomach and tries to do real pushups, and once she can't do anymore she switches to assisted style push ups. Alongside her the Major is doing the same. His form and endurance are still far greater than Kiera's, but it noticable that she is not struggling as much as she used to. Both are now thoroughly covered in mud, and Kiera wearily climbs to her feet to shuffle after the Major as he starts to jog again. They return to the hotel and Kiera heads into the bathroom to shower the mud off. The camera splits, one angled to beaware of Kiera singing to herself in the shower, off key, without seeing her. The other side of the camera shows the Major walking promptly to Kiera's bag and opening it up, dumping out some of the clothes, and taking the rest. He walks outside with it and takes it out to a metal garbage can.
The Major pauses, his face looking torn, as if he is about to do something he truly doesn't want. Then his expression hardens and he empties a bottle of fluid onto the garbage can and tosses in a lit match. The clothing that had once been JD's went up in flames, along with the most outrageous of her clothing. The Major runs a hand over his face and walks to the SUV, pulling out a duffle bag, and he returns inside.
The split in the camera disappears as Kiera turns off the shower, her side of the screen disappearing as the side watching the Major takes over the entire camera. He is emptying the duffle bag out onto Kiera's bed, all of it was clothing that was modern, but nondescript. Jeans, capris, cargo pants, tshirts in exciting colours like white, black, brown, gray and navy blue. There is a black bomber style jacket and plain running shoes. He organizes the clothing earlier discarded on the bed, packing the new clothes away with Kiera's own socks, bras and underwear, only one or two of her original clothing items remained.
Kiera walks out of the shower and gestures for the Major to go ahead. He walks into the bathroom and the camera splits again. The side watching the Major sees that he starts the shower and begins to undress, the camera angled to see only the implication of him showering. The side watching Kiera observes as she towels off and tries to grab and outfit from her bag. Only to discover what the Major has done. Kiera dumps the bag out, tearing through the clothes, realizing what the Major must have done. She storms over to the bathroom and the camera split disappears as she kicks the door open.
[Kiera]: "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY CLOTHES?"
[Crowe]: calm despite being naked and in the shower "Orders from HQ. They're burning right now sir."
Kiera stares at the Major in horror. Without saying anything she runs from the room, the camera following along behind her as she runs through the hotel room and outside. There are tears on her face as she runs towards the burning garbage can. The camera angles over Kiera's shoulder to see the Major running out of the hotel room behind Keira, careless of his nudity. His horror is evident as the camera zooms out to see Kiera reaching her left hand into the fire, trying to rescue some of the clothes, not caring that her arm was getting burned. Kiera is screaming and crying as the Major reaches her, and she pulls one of the garments out of the garbage can. The Major runs straight up to Kiera and wraps his arms around her, pinning her arms to the side and forcing her to drop the flaming material.
[Kiera]: "Let me go!" Kiera is thrashing in his grip.
[Crowe]: "I can't Kiera. You have to let them burn. You have to let him go." The Major's face is anguished.
[Kiera]: "I can still save them please! pleaseplease please let me save them!" face is drenched with tears.
[Crowe]: walks Kiera's weakly struggling form back inside their room. He sets her down but doesn't let her go. "I'm sorry Kiera. I'm so sorry. But they're gone. He's gone and you need to let him go. You're passively killing yourself Kiera and I can't let you do that."
[Kiera]: sobbing, no longer fighting. She collapses in the Major's grip, body heaving with powerful sobs and she pounds at his chest weakly.
The camera pans back enough to see the Major holding something in his grip, a syringe. While Kiera is sobbing into him, he injects her with the solution. She jerks in his grip and whispers "Bastard." before slumping, unconscious. The camera sees the Major lift Kiera up and lay her on her bed. He walks to his own bag and pulls out a medical kit. The camera fades out as he starts to treat Kiera's burned arm.
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A/N: Another two parter folks. Sorry!
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The Elsewhere Files
AdventureOn a perfectly normal day in Novemeber, world suddenly found itself a little more broken. Kiera Beckett, once normal and happily engaged, finds herself draw into the mapping and exploration of Elsewhere Incidents. People and places that are and can...
