Scott and Jean, Tuesday evening

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Scott and Jean go out to dinner to enjoy being newlyweds for a few hours. The conversation is very relaxed at first, but then comes around to Lorna's phone call on the weekend. Scott is still frustrated, but manages to put the frustration away so that they can enjoy the rest of the evening.


"Missing Lorna's cooking, were we?" Scott said, then smiled wryly as soon as the words were out of his mouth and turned his attention to the rather artistic-looking appetizer the waiter had just set down in front of him. "The things you can do with smoked salmon these days..."

"And by 'you' here, you mean 'highly trained chefs who are not your wife'. Most of the things that I can do with smoked salmon involve bagels and cream cheese," Jean said with a grin. Her own appetizer was a rather impressive tower of asparagus that looked like it could topple any minute, but didn't.

"I didn't even know this place existed," Scott said, picking up his fork and eyeing the appetizer. He almost hated to eat it. "This was a good idea," he said. "It's been a while since we went out."

"I only just heard about it last week when I was in town on some errands. Well worth the drive, I think." And it was - lovely decor and a nice, quiet atmosphere.

"Not busy, either. I bet it will be soon," Scott said after taking a bite of his appetizer. "If this is indication, word of the food should get out soon."

The tower of asparagus was being slowly deconstructed. "Probably, although I hope it doesn't get out too soon or too far. It'd be nice to have another quiet little hideout that most people didn't know about."

"Do you ever wonder why, when we need to take a break, we run away from the school?"
Scott asked good-humoredly.

Jean laughed quietly. "In truth, isn't that what most people do? Take a break from work, or a little vacation away from home? It's just that with us, work and home and everything else all come together in one busy package."

"I suppose that's it." Scott tugged at his tie, reflecting that it had been a while since he'd worn one. The wedding, actually. He lifted his wine glass. "To a quieter February?" he offered.

Jean raised her own glass, tilting it towards him. "Hear hear. Do we want to try and make plans for Valentine's Day, or would that be tempting fate?" she asked, after taking a sip.

"Tempting fate," Scott replied quickly. "Remember how much better we do when we don't plan? Although," he confessed with a little smile, "I might have made certain plans that don't necessarily need your input already."

Jean's look was loving. "Agreed, our brief bursts of spontaneity do always seem to work out very well. And I trust you and your plans, so..."

"Nothing overly complicated," Scott assured her. "Simple is good, I've always thought."

She laughed slightly. "I'm not worried, really. Well, not about that. And, while we're out here, not about anything else."

"I'm attempting to follow your fine example, even if part of my mind is still going a mile a minute on a number of subjects," Scott said ruefully. "I don't think it ever stops."

"Occasionally," Jean suggested. "When you've been knocked unconscious."

"And I am enjoying a nice long stretch of that not happening," Scott said, then laughed softly. "I shouldn't say that too loudly. Since I will after all be back on the job soon."

"You've been recovering wonderfully, you know."

"Hard to believe it's been almost three months," Scott said somewhat wonderingly, raising a hand to touch the scars on the side of his face for a moment.

"Well, they have been a somewhat... eventful three months."

"That they have been." Scott shook his head a little. "I swear we need quarterly reviews. Looking back on three-month chunks of time, assessing what went well and what didn't..."

"Hey." Jean waved the last bite of asparagus at him in a vaguely threatening manner. "Dinner now. Work later."

Scott gave her a deadpan look. "Now you're proposing to assault me with asparagus. How quick the honeymoon period concludes..."

"Well, we haven't actually had the honeymoon, and it's not as though I didn't threaten you with vegetables before we got married."

"Yes, I clearly remember the time you came after me with an oversized cucumber," Scott said with a straight face, and got a double-take from someone at the table closest to theirs. Scott smiled blandly at them.

Shaking her head, Jean said, "You're terrible, you know that?" then popped the last of the asparagus into her mouth.

"And people think I have no sense of humor," Scott said, finishing off his smoked salmon. The waiter came to remove their plates, and Scott took another sip of his wine. "Lorna called me."

"Oh?" That was unlikely to have gone well...

"Mmmm. I'm self-righteous. And Alex checked his phone every few minutes all day waiting for me to call. I don't know why he would have done that," Scott said a bit acidly. "I haven't called him since they went back."

Jean sighed. "What did you tell her?"

"The truth. Why I was angry, and why I didn't call. I was tempted to just be petty, since she seems to think that's what I was doing anyway, and tell her that my last birthday got completely forgotten so Alex could just stuff it."

Jean reached across the table to take his hand as the waiter came back to refill their water glasses. Once he had left again she said, "Did Lorna actually say that you didn't have reason to be upset? I mean, once you told her what the matter was?" Since it pertained to Lorna just as easily as to Scott.

Scott thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "Not that I had no reason to be upset," he said, since he really ought to be scrupulously fair about it, "but that I shouldn't expect Alex to change. I told her that if he was going to keep hating what I did, that he didn't get to pretend he was supporting me anymore."

"I still think that's fair, love. I don't think he's going to change, not really, but he... He needs to acknowledge that he isn't supporting you. Not about this."

"It just..." Scott shook his head a little, his expression distant, troubled. "He doesn't know everything, about what we do. But he knows enough. I don't know how he can know that, and..." #Still tell me that he doesn't care.#

"Because he's a selfish child. It's cruel but it's true." Jean's face was serious. "He's decided that the people who matter to him are the only ones who matter, and he would rather that others die than that you went into danger."

"I just wish he could see." Scott's smile was wistful, reflective. "The kids in the parking lot in Rio," he said softly, the memory of those deliriously joyful reunions in the rain coming right back to mind. It hadn't been the muzzle flashes inside the darkened library that he'd retained most clearly after all.

"I wish I could help," she said. "Help you. Help him. I just don't... This isn't something Lorna or I are ever going to be able to fix."

"It just struck me on the weekend - he's just turned twenty. I was a year older than him when I was... taking on a position of responsibility. It's not that I want him to do anything," Scott said with a quiet sort of frustration. "But I can expect him to understand. At the very least, I can not feel guilty about expecting that, or being angry when he doesn't."

Jean nodded, but she considered him a moment before she spoke again. "So Lorna called yesterday... Did you end up calling him, then, or not?"

Scott sighed and shook his head. "And I know I should have, no matter what she and I said to each other." He forced a smile. "I suppose my stubborn streak cropped up. She was very clear that I was being self-righteous and thoughtless, so I decided to go along with it."

"Yes, I figured. Scott, love, I didn't suggest you call for his sake. You're the one who's being eaten up by this."

"You'd think I would have better things to do with my time than fret about the fact that my little brother hurt my feelings," Scott said a bit dourly. The waiter chose that moment to appear with their entrees, and Scott brightened a little at the sight of his plate. "Okay. That is a steak."

Jean couldn't help the little smile. "Yes, it is indeed. Good thing, too, since that was what you ordered. I'd be worried if they'd brought pasta."

"I'm such a guy. Put a nicely cooked slab of red meat in front of me and suddenly my mood improves," Scott joked lightly.

"Well, it's not the only proof I have that you're a guy..."

The couple at the next table was making faces again. Scott ignored them merrily and cut into his steak. "Rare. Nice and rare."

Chuckling slightly, Jean turned to her own dinner. "Looks good, smells great. Tastes..." She took a small bite. "Mmmm. Tastes fabulous. I think we have a winner."

"We may have to roll each other home."

"No, too much effort. Let's just stay. There's a nice hotel down the road. We could move in."