notfaking_it | [Ellen]

After spending most of the day at the dance studio, Lily had returned to the Compound to shower, change and eat before she found herself standing on the boardwalk, her gaze drifting from the Hub, back to the Compound and then down the path in the direction of the Winchester. It wasn't often she felt at a loss for what to do, her time most often filled with dancing or socializing, which was exactly how Lily liked it. Although there were plenty of people she thought she could visit that evening, she found herself turning toward the Hub instead.

As much as she adored the people she'd met and the friends she made, there was nothing saying she couldn't make more. Sometimes a conversation with a stranger was exactly what she craved. There was something to be said for learning new things about a person, slowly unwrapping each layer. She wasn't arrogant enough to think she'd ever fully unwrapped a single person she knew, there was always another layer, another side to a person, but tonight she wanted a stranger. Someone she'd never met before.

A few minutes later, a drink in hand, Lily turned her back against the bar and leaned against it, surveying the people who were there. Many of them were faces she recognized, even if she didn't know them personally or well, but there were a few new faces. After her months on the island, she'd gotten fairly good at picking those out who were relatively new and when one woman in particular came in, Lily gave her a smile. If she wanted to talk, the smile was likely enough of an invitation, but if she wanted to be alone, it hopefully wasn't too pushy either.

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"And sometimes the lines blur, unfortunately," Ellen admits, but it isn't necessarily something she's proud of, and she especially isn't proud of it as it pertains to the law itself. But Patty had been willing to do anything to accomplish justice for her clients, often at great personal cost to any number of people.

"I'm still trying to look at it as an extended vacation," she replies, nodding once. "So far, I think it's working. It helps that I actually have a hut of my own now."

"Yeah, you don't really get the full island experience if you're stuck within four cement walls," Lily agreed with a grin. For a time she'd stayed in the Compound, stayed close to Nina, but eventually she'd had to get out of there. A hut on the beach had become necessary fairly quickly and she'd found herself enjoying life on the island even more since moving ou there.

"I didn't last in there long," she admitted.

"Not to mention the whole claustrophobic sensation," Ellen adds. She hadn't minded it at first. In a way, it had almost reminded her of living in New York, but her apartment there had windows, and after a while, it had become close to unbearable. The hut she's in now is small, more reminiscent of her place during her time in law school, but it's more open, close to the water, and she can open the windows and breathe in the salt air every single morning.

"Neither did I," she admits. "Where on the island are you living now?"

"Right on the beach," Lily answered. That had been the only option for her and she'd been lucky enough to find one near the studio. It also happened to be near a space ship, but that added a certain science fiction element she didn't mind.

"Beside the dance studio," she admitted with a grin. "I'm sure that doesn't come as much of a surprise. I was lucky no one was living there when I got here."

"I think mine had a fairly recent previous occupant," she adds, shrugging one shoulder. "Not that it mattered, but I had to make sure they were actually gone before I decided to claim it as my own."

Whoever they were, they'd definitely been male. She'd found several pieces of clothing that could attest to that much. "It is nice, though, being that close to the water. It's peaceful, and I like taking walks there in the evenings."

"It's beautiful," Lily agreed. It was a little more rustic than she was used to, not quite an apartment in New York, but she was making do. "I've been told that they're improved over the past few years with the electricity and plumbing."

She loved living on the beach, but Lily wasn't sure how comfortable she'd feel if it had been that much like camping out in the woods. They were still living in a jungle and that still meant animals and bugs she didn't even want to think about. Somehow that all seemed worse without any light.

"That's something of a relief," Ellen admits. She's fairly used to some comforts, and it would've made island living a lot more difficult without those basics she's come to take for granted over the years.

"I might be a city girl, but I think I would've been suffering a lot more if I didn't have lights or plumbing. I don't think that's too much to ask of an island that plucks you out of the world you knew without warning, do you?"

"Not at all," Lily said with a laugh, then finished her drink. Overall, she was happy enough with the state of the island, but she knew that had a lot to do with everything that was still available to them. It was very much like an extended vacation and though she understood that it was the sort of life that might eventually drive some people crazy, she was perfectly happy with it.

"Especially when it plucks you out of one of the best shows you've ever been in," she continued, although she was still smiling faintly. "I arrived in my full swan costume. Feathers and all."

Swan costume. Ellen's mind is already racing, trying to put the pieces together from Lily's description alone. There's only one show she can think of, one that would demand a costume like that, and she might be wrong, but it never hurts to guess. Chances are she's right, and if she isn't, she's not going to dwell over messing up such a trivial thing.

"Swan Lake?" she ventures, raising both eyebrows, visibly impressed. "That's amazing. You must be good - beyond good, even."

Lily grinned, partly in acknowledgement that Ellen was right about the show and partly because she was good, although she hadn't been dancing a main role. "Well, I'm not going to argue with you," she said, spinning the glass between her hands. "But I wasn't dancing the lead. I was a lowly swan servant."

But she hadn't really had a problem with that. In the end, Nina had been absolutely gorgeous. Lily had never seen a performance like hers and she only wished Nina herself had stuck around long enough to experience it. "I was the lead's alternate, but she was lovely."

"But being the alternate, that means you have to learn her part as well as your own, doesn't it?" Ellen deduces, hoping she hasn't missed the mark too much where this is concerned. She did a play or two in college, though. Ballet seems as though it would have a similar failsafe in place.

"When you think about it, that's twice the work," she adds, still looking impressed.

"But you have to remember that we have nothing else to do," Lily pointed out in return. It was a lot of work, but so was being a lawyer or a doctor or, hell, working in the service industry. It was just a different kind of work and she knew she was lucky that she loved what she did for a career, that not everyone got to do that.

"I bet you put in longer hours at your job than I ever did at mine," she said with a grin. "Lawyers have to work hard."

"True," she adds, nodding slowly in thought. To Lily, dancing is a profession as well as a passion, but it doesn't involve the same kind of working hours that her own job demanded - not only that, but it carries its own series of demands on time, life, or anything else.

"Longer hours, but it paid off in the long run. If I wasn't earning overtime, I always felt a little bit at a loss."

"And now here we are, where all the money in the world can't help us," Lily said and although she was smiling faintly, it was still strange for her to think about. Dancing with prestigious companies paid well and while she wouldn't have ever called herself wealthy, she'd certainly made enough money to live comfortably. And it wasn't that the island was uncomfortable, but it was a different sort of life.

Nothing cost a thing, which she loved.

"Don't get me wrong, I like it," she said. "I have a fabulous custom made dress just because I offered a prize of my own for casino night. I can get behind the system we have here, but it's just... not the same, is it?"

[Ellen]

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