Free Falling (Open)

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot noticed that she was startled. He didn't mean to startle her again. If he had made her frown, he would have apologized over and over. He would have felt bad and tried to make her smile, but when she shook her head, it reassured Elliot that she didn't frown because of him.

A smile appeared on his face. "I can understand," he said referring to thoughts that made her frown. Of course, he wasn't sure what she was thinking of. Elliot knew that whenever he was thinking, his emotions were written on his face even if he didn't mean for them to be.

"I get that way sometimes too."

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid kept expecting him to get frustrated with her silence. Many people did. Bek didn't usually, but she was the exception. Strangely, though, Ingrid found that she had things that she wanted to say and she had no way of communicating them to him. She wanted to ask him about the pretty brunette girl that was often with him. They looked similar, and she assumed that the girl was his sister, but she wasn't sure.

Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to have a sister. She was certain that she wouldn't feel quite so alone if she had a sister.

Her eyes dropped and she stared down at the floor, quietly reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a picture of her father, holding her as a small child. She had talked back then, before the terror of her father's death had stolen her voice. In fact, she had talked quite a lot, and her father had often joked that she would never shut up. It was frightening how one's entire life could change in a single instant.

She didn't remember the night at all. She had seen all of it from the keyhole in the closet door, but she remembered nothing, not even holding her father as he'd died. He had said something to her in his dying moments, but it was all blocked out of her memory.

Sighing softly, she handed the picture to Elliot, then raised her eyes to meet his.

[Elliot Lyons]

He was a little surprised whenever she handed him a picture. His eyebrows rose slightly, but he took the picture anyway to look at it.

As he looked at it, he assumed that it was her father. He could tell the similarities between the two. Looking at the picture, he was reminded of his own father. The father that pushed him to be great in the academic world. The father who helped raise him to be one of the perfect gentlemen of society and the one who made his life strict. The closer he looked at it, he could see the love and care on the man's face. Elliot could tell that the man loved his daughter. He wondered if his own father loved him that way, or if he was just some thing to be raised and then pushed out into society.

Elliot should have known better to question if he father loved him, but his father wasn't actually there to punish him for it, so why should he really care? It wasn't like he heard the words "I love you" used around the house a lot. He wished that his father would have gotten out in the yard and taught him to play quidditch or some muggle sport.

Elliot found himself frowning for a moment as his thoughts continued to be on his father. He pushed the thoughts from his mind so that Ingrid wouldn't see him frowning.

Pointing to the man in the photograph, he looked back to Ingrid. "Is this your father?"

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid looked over at the picture for a moment, touching her finger to the tiny image of her father. She didn't even have many pictures of her father, and this one, of the two of them when she was ony 6, was the best. But it seemed so insignificant. What she really wanted was him. It wasn't fair that he was gone.

Sometimes she fantasized about finding the man who killed him. She wanted him to pay for what he had done to her father, for what he had stolen from her. But the idea of coming face to face with the man capable of doing something to someone so dear was unthinkable to Ingrid. Just the thought of it made her heart quicken in her chest while the blood rushed to her head. There was a reason, after all, that she had blocked his face from her memory.

Sighing softly, she looked up at Elliot and nodded. Then she ran her hand over her face lightly, trying to signal that her father was dead.

[Elliot Lyons]

When his attention was solely back on Ingrid, he understood what she meant. He could tell that she missed her father dearly by the look in her eyes. It was opposite for him. Sure, he did miss his father, but it was just like an empty feeling that could sometimes turn to anger if he thought about his father too much. He knew that if he ever mentioned anything about it to Savannah, he was unsure of how she would react. The same thing went for Ryder. It seemed a little awkward around his brother but then again, Elliot was holding himself back. Maybe that was the reason why.

He never wanted to bother Cameron with the ideas that ran through his head about his father, so he came up to the Astronomy tower to think it out. Sometimes it would be alright, but then again there were times when it wasn't. Elliot wasn't going to bother anyone with his thoughts, it was just better if he listened to everyone else.

"I'm sorry about your father," he said sincerely. He took another glance at the picture. "My father died too," Sincerity and sadness was missing from his voice when he mentioned his own father. His voice was just empty sounding but it changed back to a tone of sincerity when he looked back to her. "I'm glad to see that you're doing alright though."

[Ingrid Regan]

But if there was one thing Ingrid did well, it was listen. Really, when it came down to it, most people didn't do nearly enough listening. They were too busy talking and thinking about themselves to bother listening to anyone else. But since Ingrid didn't speak, she was the ideal listener. The number of secrets that she knew about others was almost more than she could count.

She could tell, by the change in Elliot's tone, that he was not nearly as devastated over the death of his father as she was about hers. There was something... empty in his voice.

Tucking the picture of her and her father back into her pocket, she raised her hands to her eyes to mimic tears. Then she shook her head, asking him why he was not sad.

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot didn't have any pictures of his family. At his uncle's house there were a few but it seemed like those pictures were lies. There was one picture with him, his parents and Savannah in it. Each of them had a smile on their face. Even the thought of his uncle made him a little angry. The man was a drunk and he wasn't really there to help Elliot and Savannah grow up. That of course led Elliot to be a little mad with Ryder as well. After their parents' death, Ryder just continued to go off, even though they did have a few visits with him. Elliot was the one that tried to hold it together, or at least in his mind he was.

The person he felt bad for the most, however, was his sister. He could see that Savannah should just let go because he had seen the longing looks she sometimes adapted if she thought no one was watching.

"It's a long story," he said. Elliot didn't want to burden Ingrid with what happened. It wasn't that he just met her, it was just he knew that everyone else probably dumped everything on her knowing that she wouldn't tell a soul. And of course, he didn't really talk about it with anyone even though he should have.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid's eyes were sympathetic. She could tell that there was something that he kept locked inside, and she felt for him. She knew about tragedy. She knew all too well what it felt like to wake up each day with an emptiness inside that seemed to gnaw at you little by little. Something about the way he spoke, and the faraway look in his eyes told her without words that he felt that emptiness as well.

While most people told her stupid secrets, about boys they liked or how they kissed their best friend's boyfriends and other silly boy-girl secrets, most people did not tell her about their secret pains, the tragedies of their past. Maybe it was because they didn't have any, or maybe they just couldn't face them; Ingrid didn't know. With Elliot, however, she could tell it was the latter. Something had happened, and he couldn't talk about it. The hurt was too great.

Ingrid could understand that.

Impulsively, she reached out and took his hand in hers, squeezing it lightly.

[Elliot Lyons]

He wasn't expecting her to reach out and take his hand. Even though he hadn't told Ingrid about what happened with his parents, he felt that she understood. Whenever she took his hand, Elliot looked down as she squeezed it. He looked back up to her and gave a sad smile as he squeezed her hand back.

Just that simple gesture made a world of difference. Elliot knew that after they went their separate ways today whenever they would go to their common rooms, he would make a point to hang out with her again. He knew that he had found a friend in her. She wasn't like Cameron where he felt like he should always put on a happy face. He felt that he could act the way he really felt around her.

"Thank you," he said gratefully. Ingrid wasn't pushing him to tell her anything and he couldn't thank her enough for it. It did hurt greatly to talk about it but he knew that he would end up telling her eventually.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid gave him a smile. She knew how hard it could be to deal with tragedy. You felt alone and lost, like you were the only one in the world going through something so horrible. Just having someone to share it with and knowing that someone else had been through something terrible.... it could make a huge difference. She hoped that Elliot wasn't alone in his grief. He sad he wasn't sad about his father.... what of his mother? Did he have siblings? She wanted to know, but had no way of asking. She figured that if he wanted her to know, he would tell her.

[Elliot Lyons]

"Out of everything," Elliot found himself saying, "I feel bad for Savannah, my sister. She always tries to be a perfect lady that our parents had always wanted her to be. I can tell that she wants to do so much more but she doesn't. It's like she's scared and I don't know how to just tell her that it's alright. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Our older brother is always off working and he never really bothers to spend that much time with us. Whenever he does visit, it's usually always awkward."

He looked down toward the floor. "Our parents wanted us to be like the perfect people in society. Ryder never wanted anything like that. He was the one that rebelled while Savannah and I just went along with our parents' wishes. Neither of us ever went against them. Even though they have been gone awhile, it's like they're still here sometimes."

Elliot never meant to open up like that. His thoughts just overpowered him and they had to have an outlet so they wouldn't continue to just cloud his mind.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid listened, her eyes sympathetic. She was still holding his hand, and she gave it another supportive squeeze. Even if there was more to the story, she was starting to understand a little more. His parents were both gone, and his older brother had pulled away from them, leaving just Elliot and his sister. She assumed that the sister was the pretty brunette she often saw him with.

She could identify with the loss, as well as the feeling that you were trapped inside yourself. She was trapped, too, in a world of silence and hazy memories. Her father had been far from a perfect member of society. Even though she had been young when he died, she knew perfectly well that most of the things he did were wrong and illegal. That was why he was killed; he'd upset the wrong person. But regardless of his mistakes, her father had been good to her. He had loved her with everything he had, and she ached for the loss of that love. Aunt Bonnie cared, but she didn't love her the way her father had. So Ingrid was truly, utterly alone.

Elliot at least had his sister, but Ingrid wondered if he'd ever had anyone who loved him the way her father had loved her. Everyone deserved to experience that kind of love once, Ingrid believed. She had already had her chance.

[Elliot Lyons]

"It makes me so angry," Elliot said, although his voice showed no signs of anger. "There is so much that we could have done but we never had the chance. We could never express ourselves freely. Sports were completely out of the question, so it was just books and repetition. We knew that we couldn't do bad in school. I was terrified of letting my parents down. I was scared of what my father might have done. Ryder was already showing that he didn't care what they thought and I saw how much that angered my father. I couldn't do the same thing." He sighed. "It was just like an empty house in a way, to me anyway. I never had any of those father/son moments. Even when we went to go live with our uncle, it was still same. We didn't know how to act or anything, so we just continued on being the way we had been, the way our parents made us be. Although, it wouldn't have mattered how we acted. Our uncle is a drunk."

His expressions showed the pain that had been held back for so long, as he continued to look down at the floor. Somehow, some of the weight that had been on his shoulders lifted. However, a lot remained. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, although he felt that he
was supposed to do something.

After a few moments of silence, he squeezed Ingrid's hand and then looked at her. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "I didn't mean to just put most of it out there like that. You're the first person that I've ever really talked about them to. And it's not because why other people tell you things." Elliot felt the need to reassure her that it wasn't because she didn't speak that he just said what he did. Ingrid was a comfort because she wasn't judging, and they were similar in the sense of being quiet, shy and usually keeping to themselves.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid didn't mind it. She ached for what he had gone through. She didn't understand all of it, or what had finally happened to his parents, but she still felt for him. Parents could be cruel sometimes with the kinds of expectations they heaped on their children. If only the would just love them for who they were.

Her father had done that. Yes, he had taught her some things that she was able to look back on and realize were wrong. He'd taught her to lie and to cheat and to steal, and to do it all with a smile. But in spite of that, he had also taught her about love and beauty. It was from him that she learned to love animals. He would take her to the Zoo all the time, he would bring home stray animals to care for them.... He may not have cared much for most people, but he cared for animals. So even if he had taught her to be a con artist like him, he had also taught her good things, things that mattered. And besides, she wasn't that girl anymore. That girl had died with her father.

To show Elliot that she didn't mind him telling her his secrets, she pulled him into a hug.

[Elliot Lyons]

Ingrid's hug took him by surprise, so it took him a moment to respond. She was welcoming and understanding. Elliot had needed something like that. Someone who wasn't involved in what was going on with the family, someone who wouldn't just brush it off and want to go do something else. She was that person and the timing couldn't have been better.

Elliot put his arms around her, returning the hug. "Thank you," he said again gratefully. Meeting Ingrid had put a difference and he couldn't have thanked her enough. It was amazing how just one person could make any kind of impact. Even though Elliot still felt a burden, he knew that there was someone that understood. Cameron probably couldn't have sat long enough for Elliot to tell him what was going on. Plus, this situation felt like something he didn't need to discuss with Cameron at the moment. Maybe some other time.

Once Elliot released Ingrid and sat back up, he had a small smile on his face. "I'll have to repay you for this somehow." Sure, he had just met the red-head but it seemed like he had known her for ages.

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid waved this off and gave him a smile. She hadn't done it so that she could get something in return. What could she possibly need? No, she had simply known intuitively that he was troubled and in need of a sympathetic ear. And she was able to provide him with that.

Oddly, she was similarly feeling like she had known him for a long time. Even if she didn't know his whole story, she could still identify with the feeling of being trapped inside your own personal prison.

No one at school knew her true story. Obviously, she didn't talk about it. And her father had been low class--a wizard con artist--so it wasn't like his death had made a difference to anyone except herself. It had only been reported in her hometown paper, and it hadn't gained any kind of notoriety, even though the killer had never been caught. So since no one knew, she had never attempted to enlighten any of them in any way.

But for the first time, she wanted to share her story with someone. With Elliot. Maybe the next time she saw him, she would. She would need visual aids, of course.

Her smile brightened at seeing the smile on his face. Teasingly, she reached up with the tips of her index fingers and pushed up his lips in the corners, broadening his grin.

[Elliot Lyons]

"I will think of something," he said nodding his head. His smile still wasn't that wide for the moment. Whenever she reached her hands up and pushed the corners of his lips up and it did cause his smile to widen. He then started to laugh. Her small action seemed to lighten things up.

"You're quite funny, you know that?" Elliot gave her a teasing look. He was enjoying himself. Things had gone from a little unsure, to telling her about how things had been, to laughing. It was like they had been friends all along, and Elliot knew for a fact that it was going to happen again.

"Tonight, do you want to join my sister and I for dinner? I'm sure that she'll like you too."

[Ingrid Regan]

No one ever realized that Ingrid had a sense of humor. How could she, if she didn't talk? But her father had been a fun-loving man who had loved to joke and laugh, and he'd instilled that love of laughter in her as well. But when she laughed, she made no sound.

She wasn't expecting Elliot's invitation, and her eyes widened. She usually sat near Bek, but now she was being invited to sit at a whole new table, with a new friend.

She broke into a smile and nodded vigorously.

[Elliot Lyons]

To Elliot, it didn't matter if Ingrid could speak or not. You didn't have to speak in order to talk with someone. Sometimes expressions said it all. In addition, Ingrid was still a person just like he was. She wasn't just a thing that all secrets could just be dumped into.

"Good," he said with a wide smile. "You know you don't have to be shy at dinner. My sister is really nice and like I said, I think that she'll like you too." Elliot was feeling excited about dinner. "Oh, and I should probably let you know that my friend Cameron might come over too. He's no one that you should worry about, promise."

[Ingrid Regan]

Ingrid may have been silent, but she was not ignorant. She was well aware of the fact that this could be considered sort of a date. Of course, the presence of his sister and possibly his friend made it a little less so. But she knew from hearing the other girls talk that this was often considered a date. She wasn't really sure if that was the case with Eliiot, but she knew other girls (who read into everything) might think it was. Still, she didn't mind either way. She liked Elliot, and she would enjoy spending time with him.

She smiled and nodded again.