[D9, LE] There and Back Again, A Clown's Tale.

[Camilo Batista]

Camilo didn't head over to Frankie's room immediately after leaving Elite Chai. He first took a walk around the Refuge, collecting his thoughts. Eventually, the time for delay came to and end and he made his way to the dorms. He stood in front her door building up that last bit of resolve before knocking. He gently rapped his knuckles against the door, almost hoping she wouldn't answer.

*knock knock*

[Dapper Dog]

"Hey," she said opening the door and then added, "Come in, yeah, I was just watching videos on the incident."

[Camilo Batista]

The sight of her brought on a sad smile.

"Sim, it is very bad. Lot's of things are bad."

There was an urge at he edge of his consciousness, a tiny voice that he'd been ignoring for that last few hours, one he usually gave into and had only recently chosen to ignore. The urge was to run away and hide away from the choice with no good options and the voice was getting louder.

"Can we sit. I need to tell you something and I need to ask you something. Por favor."

[Dapper Dog]

She nodded and ushered him and said, "What's wrong?"

[Camilo Batista]

Compulsively stroking his mustache, Camilo walks in and takes a seat in the hard wooden chair common to dorm rooms.

"There's um... There's..." Camilo stumbles over a few false starts. He looks to the screen where Frankie was watching the coverage of the attacks and then back to Frankie.

"Let me ask you first. You worked in coastal rescue, you're trained to go in and save people, it's your nature to go in and save people. But, if you were in something like that, where there's fighting going on and it was almost certain you would lose your life to go in, would you? If you knew it would kill you, would you still go in?"

[Dapper Dog]

"If I knew, I don't quite understand, every time we go out there is a chance for that, init," she admitted. "But we do all we can to be safe, but there is always something, yeah."

"Like if I knew it was certain death, we would try to find a different way, is that what you mean?"

[Camilo Batista]

This was what he feared. What he'd been shown and what he knew. In all the different versions she still tried and she still died. Could he change that. Was it possible?

"...Yes, but what if there wasn't a different way. What if it could only be a trade, your life for theirs?"

[Dapper Dog]

"If I would sacrifice myself for another, I mean, if I knew ahead of time? That's a strange question? Would you?" she asked.

[Camilo Batista]

That was the crux of the problem wasn't it. He was going to ask her to not do something he himself would. Ask her to go against a part of her nature that he loved so much but would lead to her end. But still he had to try.

"I don't have to make that choice. My abilities keep me from dying. They've been pushed pretty far and I'm still here. The only thing I have to deal with is an inconvenience and that doesn't even last as long for me as it would for someone else. Pain and suffering are temporary and mine more than most.

I'm asking about you. You have to save yourself before you can save others. No? If you sacrifice yourself for one, then all the rest you could save later are doomed."

[Dapper Dog]

"I could not live with myself knowing I could have done something, yeah," she said.

"Whatever it is, if you know something. I don't want to know. I don't want that burden."

[Camilo Batista]

The tears Camilo had been holding back started to well up in his eyes.

Letting her go was hard enough, but knowing her fate if he did made it almost impossible. On the other hand, he couldn't take away her choice, couldn't steal her agency from her like that. She wouldn't be a caged bird.

It was already decided before he knocked on the door. He knew the kind of person she was and the kind of person he was. Or at least the kind of person he wanted to be.

"I worry for you. Worry what could happen if I'm not there. What you do is so dangerous..." He stood up and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her shoulder. His voice broke, coming out muffled as he held her tightly, "There's a way to send you home. Back to your world."

[Dapper Dog]

She was taken back by the tears but the depth s from whence they came moved her and she hugged him and held him close and said, "We are who we are, yeah."

She had to think, she wanted to go back but she really wanted to stay a little longer but ultimately she knew, they both knew where she had to be. She said, "I am going but stay with me tonight, and we'll deal with the rest later."

[Camilo Batista]

Nodding, he easily picked her up and carried her gently to the bed, "I just wanna hold you close." He whispered.

/scene?