Room 406, afternoon into evening

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel has not been having the best time of it the last week or so. There'd been the horrendous trip to LA, coming back to find out that Jack was in trouble, and then fighting with Greg. The only thing that could make things worse would be a call from Max with more of his particular brand of stupidity.

Too keyed up to even attempt sleep, Isabel sat on her bed and floated the nerf balls from the day at the beach with Cedric and Jack through the air in a complicated pattern. It was easier to focus on that then think about how closely the argument she had with Greg paralleled why everyone was mad at Jack.

The door was open.

Comments

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

After hearing Isabel's message yesterday, Peter figured it might be a good idea to check up on her and see how the trip to LA went. He knocked on the door as he peeked his head in. "Hey, Isabel. How was your trip?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Honestly? It sucked," Isabel said, sending the balls over to land on her desk. Scooting back towards the head of the bed she motioned for Peter to take a seat.

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

Peter came in and noted that Isabel looked terrible. "What happened?" he asked, sitting down.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"The demon was scarier and tougher to kill then I thought it would be," she explained. "That's why I was there so long. It didn't finally end until late, late Friday night."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"Ugh," Peter said. "But you did get the demon? That's an upside, at least."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"We did. It just took too long." Isabel paused, biting her lip and gathering her thoughts. "Did you ever have to make a choice about who you saved?" she asked finally.

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

Peter thought he could see where this was going. "Not quite. But I've been in situations where I haven't been able to save someone. And more than a few where a decision I made directly lead to someone dying. And that sucks. And it hurts. But one thing you learn quickly when you dedicate yourself to doing this kind of work is that you can't save everyone, no matter how hard you try."

"So, with that disclaimer out of the way, what happened?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"A group of kids read a spell and summoned a demon. He was killing them in their dreams. Except whatever happened in their dreams, carried over into real life," Isabel explained. "Angel needed me out there to get him and Logan into the dreams so they could fight the demon. The first night we waited until everyone went to sleep. That night he attacked a girl named Claire. She was only fourteen." Abruptly Isabel got up and went to the mini-fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. Returning to her seat she offered one to Peter.

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Peter said. "Are you okay with continuing? You don't have to."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I need to. I told Greg some of what happened, but I don't think he really gets it," Isabel said quietly. "It's not his fault. It's just, his life has been pretty normal before here."

She opened her bottle of water and took a drink. "So we went in and immediately were attacked by this rat-like thing. Except it was pretty damn big. That kept Angel and Logan occupied. I thought it was the demon itself. But it wasn't. It was just something he created based on Claire's fears. Then he waited until I was distracted watching Angel and Logan and he came after her."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"I get it. I had two girlfriends before coming here. I could talk to the first one about anything, but she just didn't get this kind of stuff the way my next girlfriend, who was also a hero, did," Peter said. "She just didn't have the frame of reference for it."

"And when he came after her, she..." Peter trailed off, figuring it was clear what he was getting at.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"That's not such a bad thing. It's nice to have one fairly normal thing in my life," she said, trying not to think about the fact that she might not have it any more.

"He came after her, I tried to stop him and got tossed aside like a ragdoll. By the time I got my wits about me, he was about to kill her. I don't know what would happen if we were in her dreams when she died. So we had to leave. It was all I could do to pull Angel and Logan out of the dream with me before she died," Isabel said quietly. "We opened our eyes just in time to see a hole appear in her chest where her heart had been."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"That's terrible," Peter said. "But it sounds like it was the right call. You did everything you could to help her, but you lived to fight another day. It sucks that she died, but you couldn't do anything else."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I guess. It doesn't make me feel better though," Isabel said. "But I guess I'd be pretty cold if it didn't bother me."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"You care. That's important," Peter said. "There's this guy back in New York, calls himself 'The Punisher.' This guy beats me when it comes to personal tragedy. He was a cop, wouldn't take bribes, and his family was killed over it. Since then he's been fighting crime his own way, with a lot of guns and no respect for human life. Absolutely no care for who gets killed as long as he kills who he thinks deserves it."

"He's a dangerous schmuck and I'm glad he keeps getting thrown in jail. He has great power and doesn't use it responsibly. You do. You can jump inside people's dreams, do whatever you want inside of there, but you don't. You did everything you could to save that girl. You did that because you care. You're a hero."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm no hero," Isabel said quickly, thinking of what Vilandra had done. "I'm just doing what I can do to help."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"That's exactly what makes you a hero," Peter said.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"We're going to have to agree to disagree about that," she said with a small smile. "Because I'm afraid being a hero might require a costume. And I only wear spandex to the gym."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"That's only if you go with the superhero designation," Peter said. "Or you can always go with the more modern leather. Very popular among costumed heroes nowadays."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Leather might work," Isabel grinned. "But I refuse to wear refuse to wear heels. I want boots that hurt people if I have to kick them."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"Good call. Although I can attest to the fact that heels hurt when you're kicked with them, too," Peter said. "A lot. But only ninjas should try that."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Oh I'm well aware of the power of a spiked heel to the instep," she said with a wicked grin. "I dated a football player back in Roswell once."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"They're dangerous tools that I'm glad I've only had to deal with a couple times in violent circumstances," Peter said.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully those circumstances didn't involve trying to cop a feel in a dark corner," Isabel said, rolling her eyes. "Unless you have an inner jerk that I haven't met before."

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"Nope. That was the aforementioned ninja," Peter said. "She was an assassin."