In the eye of the beholder

Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to Impossible Pictures

-1-

Whenever Helen Cutter saw Jenny Lewis alongside Nick and his crew, she always thought of an exotic bird hanging around a bunch of street pigeons or starlings, because she wanted to fit in.

Jenny Lewis wants to radiate confidence and self-power, and hence she wears those deeply-colored power suits, bright make-up and high heels, but Helen is an anthropologist (a doctor of anthropology, thank you very much!), she studies people for a living, and she can see that underneath all that get-up is a skinny, bony woman with hardly any bite to her bark – in a good hard grip, even in a good hard human grip Jenny Lewis would crack, like an egg – and probably die… but Helen Cutter would not do such a thing: she is not a deliberate murderer after all.

Seeing Steven die was enough, and on the other hand – why should she care about the fate of Jenny Lewis? She had re-made Claudia Brown into this human doll because she was pissed at Nick: Nick is a comfortable man and a man who likes comfort, and Jenny Lewis, with all of her sharp angles and corners – nothing plush or voluptuous about that woman-girl, oh no! – is not very comfortable at all. Seeing the two of them create discomfort in each other almost makes Helen's day – almost.

Still, Helen is canny and experienced enough to know that Nick got that Scottish impetus: once he starts to roll for real, he'll wear down Jenny's sharp angles and corners, and turn her into a "poor-man's-copy" of Claudia Brown, so to speak. When that happens, Jenny Lewis will essentially die – in spirit, and not in body, and that makes Helen Cutter somehow uncomfortable, even though Jenny Lewis means nothing to her: she is not a deliberate murderer after all.

-2-

Whenever Jenny Lewis saw Helen Cutter opposing Nick, she remembered the old adage that family members often grew to resemble one another as the time passes, and in case of Helen Cutter, it could not be more obvious. There is nothing womanly about Helen Cutter, not in her clothes (aside from bras and such-like), nor in her hair (where does she get it cut) nor in her make-up (absent utterly and completely). Helen Cutter is as manly as a woman can be, and whenever she ends-up opposing Nick, the physical and behavioral similarities between husband and wife – all right, former husband and wife – are clear to see.

Now, to Nick, Helen Cutter is the personification of all that is wrong in the world, but Jenny knows different: Nick and Helen are bitter divorcees, and now that Helen seems to begin to stop being bitter and grow distant and independent instead, Nick is disturbed. He too is trying to move-on, but he is slower than his ex-wife, he is lagging behind, and that just makes things worse.

For her own part, Jenny partly pities Helen Cutter, and partly envies her. The woman – for all of her posturing – is obviously as lonely as a sphinx and just as well-liked. Nick, of course, is no paragon of communication either, but he has to, while Helen doesn't, and for all of her claims for manipulation, Jenny can see that Helen can only manipulate people if they would let her, and no other way – and that is why Jenny, a public relations specialist, whose job is to manipulate people, pities Nick's soon-to-be-officially ex-wife.

And yet Jenny also envies Helen, and is even a bit intimidated by her – just a bit. The woman is knowledgeable and strong just like Nick, if she had been just a bit more social and less bitter, the two would have probably made-up and left Jenny out in the cold, unneeded by anyone – and Jenny knows that it's probably selfish, but she wants to be needed, she wants to be admired by others, even if those others are Nick Cutter and his friends-…

And most of all, the most envious thing in Helen Cutter – according to Jenny Lewis, of course – is the woman's self-independence from others. Jenny Lewis would have paid dearly to have that kind of self-esteem, which she sorely lacks. That is why she wants to keep Helen Cutter on the out – because if their positions are reversed, Jenny knows that she won't make it.

-3-

Abby Maitland doesn't know what to make out of Caroline Steele, and she is even no longer certain that she hates her.

For a long time, Caroline Steele stood for everything that Abby was against – a smooth, cultured young woman of the mainstream variety, who managed to trick Connor into liking her, even if just for a while.

And then it was all over – Connor was with her, and Caroline just faded away into the background: Abby won!.. only to have Caroline return – first as the supplier of dogs to captain Becker's forces and second as the amateur advisor on the physics of time (she studied it for two weeks…which is two weeks more than the rest of them combined). Seeing Caroline back in the saddle made Abby feel angry. Seeing her treating Connor without any romantic overtures made Abby feel cheated out of her victory.

Abby Maitland doesn't know what to make out of Caroline Steele – the other woman does not try to be her enemy or friend, and Abby doesn't know what else is there. But she does know that has to do something about it fast – or she will never know peace in the ARC.

-4-

Caroline Steele knows exactly what to make out of Abby Maitland – she had seen plenty of her kind back in college.

Abby Maitland, Caroline knows, is a technological-minded person, even if her technology is lizards (seriously, what's up with that?). Abby Maitland approaches everything in a scientific way, aiming to sort and label everything in a right place – and according to her, Caroline's place is that of The Other Woman.

Unfortunately for Abby, Caroline knows that you can be a good loser like her mother – or a bad loser like her other mother, and lose even what under other circumstances can be salvaged. Yes, she honestly misses Connor's companionship (even if it was artificially grafted in the beginning) and his happy-go-lucky approach to life, but she will not play The Other Woman in Abby Maitland's court – she still has her dignity, thank you very much!!

And finally, Caroline knows one last thing: Abby Maitland doesn't know how to be a lover, it doesn't come with a manual or a sensei, like, say, lizard breeding (or dog breeding, for that matter) or fighting. As a consequence, she is hopelessly floundering, (especially because Caroline isn't much help either one has to admit) doing all the mistakes that Caroline's own parents have once made, without hitting on any solutions. Sooner or later, Caroline suspects, Abby and Connor's relationship with fall into pieces, without her having to lift a finger to do anything.

And once that happens, Caroline thinks, once Abby and Connor will break what could have been warm and wonderful instead, then she, Caroline Steele, will feel very cold and hollow indeed.

To be continued…