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To Normal
Summary: Sara and Janine hang out and bond over some wine on an off night. This was supposed to be fun and fluff but then it took a sharp turn the opposite way.
Content warning: fluff, angst, alcohol, it’s the actual apocalypse.
(Laughing and chatter from a distance, growing closer. The sound of a door banging open and chairs scraping, a thick piece of glass set down upon rough wood. The conversation comes in with the noise. SARA and JANINE enter JANINE’S KITCHEN. It is sparse and utilitarian, with a small dining table with four chairs. A tablecloth here, a framed floral print there makes it somewhat warmer. The kinship between JANINE and SARA is clear. Both women are tipsy at this point, their speech and movements utterly relaxed and fluid with one another. Each carries a bottle of wine.)
JANINE
(Laughing)--he was looking at me like he wanted to throw something at me, I swear to God—
SARA
(Teasing) Well’d you ever stop to think that maybe you deserve it, a bit?
JANINE
(In playful anger and indignance.) Why you—I should throw something at you!
SARA
(Laughs, demonstrates bobbing and weaving in place.) You can try, but I’m too fast for you!
JANINE
Ah yes, yes, Abel Township’s Most Reliable Runner. How could I forget I was in the presence of royalty?
(Janine fakes an exaggerated bow, while Sara laughs, pulls a chair out from the table, and sits.)
SARA
It was you that gave me that title, if I do recall correctly, Janine.
JANINE
(Rolls her eyes as she sits in a chair across the table from Sara.) May be one of the biggest mistakes of my life, I’ll never hear the end of—
SARA
The biggest? Really? Even bigger than that guy you went with in college—Kyle, was it?
(Janine shudders and mimes a gag and Sara laughs again, a deep, throw-your-head back unrestrained kind of laugh. Janine joins.)
Well, then. To mistakes!
(Sara brandishes her bottle of wine towards Janine, who clinks her own against it. Both take a swig)
JANINE
(Dramatically.) To the ones we’ve made, and the ones we’ve yet to make!
(Sara groans.)
SARA
Holy Mary Mother of God…you’re still too serious. Here, I think you need more of this.
(SARA pulls one leg up to half-perch on the chair, then leans far over the table and offers her bottle to JANINE. JANINE snorts and gestures with her own.)
JANINE
I’ve already got one! How could you forget? You’re the one that carried both of them back from that petrol station! And you spent two Runner’s Rights for them—
SARA
(Waves a hand dismissively.) It’s worth a little extra weight in the pack. Even working gals like us deserve a chance to unwind every once in a while—let our hair down.
JANINE
Hear, hear!
(JANINE raises her bottle to SARA’s, which is still wavering in front of her face and clinks them together loudly. Both drink and SARA settles back into her chair. There is a companionable pause.)
Nights like this, you can almost feel…normal again. It’s nice. This is…nice. (A beat)
SARA
Now, don’t you go getting all sentimental on me now, Jenny. Neither one of us is normal, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. I much prefer to run and fight. (Darker.) Hell, who is normal these days? Nobody that’s still standing.
JANINE
(Doesn't notice the change in tone.) Oh, I don’t know, Sara. Seems like some people seem to manage it. Maxine’s always chipper, people are starting to put autumn decorations around the township—did you hear there was a proposal the other day?
SARA
A marriage proposal?
JANINE
Yeah. That tall guy that works in the clinic, he has a teenage daughter? And one of the gardeners, I think.
(Sara is silent, and her expression falls. She takes a drink of wine.)
Oh, God, Sara, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—
SARA
(Stands up suddenly. Strikes a dramatic pose that allows her to turn her face away from Janine)
To the happy couple! To love! To domesticity!
JANINE
(After a beat, laughs and stands to thrust her bottle out in turn in appeasement.) To normal! May they be happy, as long as there’re Runners like you—
SARA
And tacticians like you—
JANINE
To keep them safe. To us!
SARA & JANINE
(Together, loudly.) Hear, hear!
(SARA AND JANINE clink their glasses, drink, look very pleased with themselves, then burst into a long bout of laughter. SARA swings her bottle wide as she sits again, and JANINE notices that her bottle is considerably less full than JANINE’s at this point.)
JANINE
(A pause as they calm. JANINE wipes a tear of laughter from one eye and sighs loudly.) You don’t know how much I needed this, Sara. Ever since that new Runner Five showed up, I swear each mission has been getting more stressful and…just weird. I swear, if the apocalypse hadn’t already happened—
SARA
(Nods.) Yeah, an odd duck, that Runner Five. Only person I’ve ever met that seems to prefer going by a number. And wherever Five is, there’s trouble—
JANINE
(Teasingly.) Wherever you are, there’s trouble, you mean. You’re out on all the same missions—
SARA
And without you and Sam with your cameras and the comms shack, we’d be goners, and you know it. (Pause, then slyly.) Or at least Five would be!
JANINE
You know, you might be right. Vain, but right. (Laughs, then grows serious.) It’s a lot sometimes, though. You know? Sometimes…I wish I didn’t have to be the one…planning everything. Making it alright for all these people. (Gestures broadly to indicate the camp around them.) There are so many people here now, Sara. And just feeling like I’m responsible for them all—well. What about when I make the wrong call? People have died, Sara.
SARA
(Nods, looking into the middle distance.) I know, Jenny. It’s a hell of a lot to ask of a person, and I don’t envy you for it. But the world needs people like you, or there’d be almost nobody left in it. Some of us…we’re only looking out for ourselves. (Pause. Speculatively.) And after the things I’ve done…Well, it sounds awfully selfish when you lay it out, doesn’t it?
JANINE
(Distressed.) Sara, don’t say that! You know that’ not true, you know that you had to—
SARA
And you know that we’re in this thing—this project—together. You and I and the ground beneath our feet. And all the people that run around on top—well, we’ll do the best we can for them, won’t we?
(JANINE nods. Silently, she offers the bottle for one last toast. SARA drains hers, and JANINE swirls the remaining liquid around. After another pause, SARA begins to hum, then sings softly.)
I wish I was on yonder hill…
JANINE
(Groans, but rapt.) Oh, Sara, don’t, we’re both drunk, you’ll make me cry! I hate crying.
SARA
(Sticks out her tongue briefly and grins at the word “cry.”) For there I’d sit and cry my fill
JANINE
You’re becoming an awful stereotype, you know that?
SARA
And ev’ry tear would turn a mill.
I wish I was on my true love’s knee.
Many a fond story he told to me;
SARA AND JANINE
He told me things that ne’er shall be.
(Both women pause, SARA humming the chorus gently. They stare intently at one another. It’s a quiet night at Abel.)