Mending The Broken

Part One

Elizabeth shook her head in understanding and folded her arms across her chest. She tilted her head to the side playfully. "I've already been there, babe. I had a seat reserved next to the throne when I was in high school." She winked and walked past him, leading the way inside.

"One hand means f**k off, two hands means f**k you. Get it right." He chuckled. For a moment, she gave Angelo a confused look, but then she shook her head and sighed, shrugging, "Everybody told me to ‘go to hell’ when they did it. Guess I never got the message."

"That's...kinda depressing." He said. "Well, I'm gonna look around. I hear they recently got a copy of Fifty Shades of Gra-I mean...Dante's Inferno."

She gave him a knowing look. She rolled her eyes as if to say 'whatever', and made her way to the back of the building, chuckling to herself.

Angelo went to the reference section. He picked up a book about schizophrenia, as well as various other mental disorders.

Elizabeth watched him from the corner of her eyes, and having read almost every book she could get her hands on, she could see that they seemed to have similar interests. That was until she recalled what he said about taking classes in psychology. She looked away, slightly embarrassed for accusing herself of knowing his interests. After all, they only met less than a day ago.

She pondered on whether she should tell him that the book residing directly below the one he picked up would make more sense, after all, it did have more information references, however, she believed that he had chosen his books with determination, and she trusted that he would find what he was searching for.

Elizabeth decided to give him some privacy and turned back to the large book she held between her fingers.

Angelo attempted to hide the book covers from pretty much everyone he passed by as he made his way to the self checkout station.

Elizabeth put the book back and ran to catch up with him. "Done already?"

"Indeed. Just needed to check some things out." He said. He was still making sure no one saw the covers.

She sighed at his anxious behaviors. "You know, this library is more private than public, right? You don't have to be so secretive about your studies." She pressed him gently with questions.

"It's...still better to be safe than sorry. Some of this is a bit personal." He said as he put the books into a bag.

"I suppose..." she trailed off. She sighed again. "If you would pardon my asking, what makes it so personal?"

"Happens to deal with my roommate, mostly." He replied plainly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate, Angelo?"

"My twin brother, whom I live with, suffers from brief outbursts of hallucinations, moderate paranoia, bipolar disorder, rather demented thought processes...The list goes on." He muttered, just loud enough for Elizabeth to hear.

She watched him as he explained all this, nodding her head in understanding. "I see." She said as he trailed off. "Has he tried anything?"

Surely he's heard of the many different types of techniques, like meditation, therapies, medications and such?

"I don't think there's any medication or therapy for 'seeing the person he’s talking to suddenly turn into a purple frog man' or 'immediately thinking of gouging people's eyes out when he meets them the first time.'" He sighed. "But...let's get off of that topic for now and continue this conversation once someone finds a way to divide by zero. I've got to plan, and you've got to gather supplies."

She looked down. "I'm sorry for asking." She paused, her next words were pulled from memory. "And you're right, anyways. There isn't." She added, knowingly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Anyways, let's get to work." She said, quickly agreeing to change the subject.

"Indeed." He said. "Perhaps we should plan somewhere else, where we might NOT get arrested?" He whispered.

She gave him another million dollar smile. "Relax, if you don't seem nervous, nobody will have a reason to think you should be. Besides, even if we DO get in trouble, just play along. I'll take care of everything." She gave him another glance.

"However, if you really want to go somewhere else, we don't have to stay put." She looked at him intensely.

Angelo gave a skeptical look, before grinning slightly. "Oh yeah, sure. You'll take care of everything." He laughed. "But yeah, I think it would be best either way that we do this in a less public place. In an ideal setting, we'd have access to our inventory, I'd be able to get a more in depth analysis done of our target through means I DEFINITELY shouldn't be detailing in public, our internet activity wouldn't be tracked, and plus, I might even be able to order food." He said.

Elizabeth raised her eyebrow once more, another bad habit she was developing once again. "Do you have anywhere placed in mind?" She inquired.

"Wherever you think would work. I'd suggest my place.”

“Inviting me over already?”

“Well, I've got access to TOR. But the heaters aren't working, and winter's REALLY hitting my neighborhood hard. You'd freeze for sure, and you seem southern. I know a bit about the southern U.S. Unless you have a fur jacket or flamethrower handy, you'd no doubt suffer." He said. "Your choice. Wherever we can avoid being tracked or monitored."

She smirked. "Thank you so kindly for thinking of me, but I'll have you know I've spent about a good year of my time in Alaska. Now, I know that might not seem like much to some, but I mean it when I say I can handle the f*****g cold." She shot him a playful look. "Besides, I'd like to see your place sometime."

"Alright, then." He plainly said. "Well, best be off. After you get the supplies, that is." He laughed.

She grinned. "I need to know WHAT to get in order to get it, smartass." She punched his arm playfully.

"I know. Here's a list." He said as he handed her a piece of paper. Or rather, a few papers covered completely in writing. Some things on the long list of items included tongs, toothbrushes, tinfoil, cotton swabs, and other various odds and ends that very few people would associate with breaking into a hospital.

She looked at him with curious eyes. "This isn't all for just one plan, is it?" She looked each paper over, glancing back over at Angelo every now and then. "This is like a shopping list for the neighborhood." She said, smiling.

"Well, first off, best to have something and not need it, than to need it and not have it, yeah? Plus, most are ingredients for a great many things. For example, that first page," He pointed toward the aforementioned items, tinfoil and cotton swabs and the like, "those are for making a functioning crossbow. Just in case things get nasty." He pointed to another page, one with wet moss, dog urine, and various other questionably aromatic tidbits. "Those are for getting people to either come somewhere or get away."

She grinned again. "You just think of everything, don't you?" She touched her ears ominously, her room-temperature fingers feeling hot against the cold tip of her ears. Looking back down at the papers in her hand, she tried to process all that it meant. "I didn't know I was an elf. Can't Santa do his own Christmas shopping?" She winked at him.

"You agreed to get the supplies, didn't you? Unless you'd like to have to actually use that brain of yours and play a bigger part in helping me plan?" He said with a cheeky smile. She punched his shoulder playfully. "I know what I said." She looked at him, her hazel green eyes shimmered in the sun, giving off a somewhat wary and cautious color, but looking full of trust.

"Well, off to it!" He said. "I'll be analyzing the building while you do that. When you're done, head straight west from here until you see a small, grey house with cheesy but endearing Halloween decorations that haven't been taken off the windows yet. That's where we'll be plotting our master plan." He began to walk off. "Oh, question, Mexican food or Chinese food?" he looked back for a moment.

She listened to his directions carefully and gave a nod when he was finished. She then gave him a sideways smile. "Your house, your food. You choose. I'll be back in under an hour." She turned on her heel and headed off, waving back to him as she went.