xp_logs | Out Tonight: Terry and Bobby

Since she asked him out earlier in the day, Terry and Bobby go for some dinner and dancing. Terry asks how Angelo is and somehow that leads to them having a small argument. They make up without really having resolved anything. Not that that's shocking.

Terry pushed her hair over her shoulder and pursed her lips, torn. "Steak or fish? Or...shrimp?" She peeked over her menu at her husband, watching him intently and waiting for him to notice her. She passed the time by admiring how the pale blue of his shirt matched his eyes. He finally looked up and she gave him a cheery smile, "What are you getting?"

"Dunno," Bobby replied, frowning at the menu again. "Steak, I guess." Nothing really sounded all that good, but he couldn't go wrong with steak, right? "...Or the chicken. That looks pretty good, too. Crap." He took a sip of his water and sighed, as if menu choices were too much responsibility right now.

Terry frowned briefly, "It's not a matter of national security, a stor. Have the steak, then I can steal bites." She set her menu aside and reached across the table to him, "What's wrong?"

Folding up the menu and setting it aside with a nod, Bobby took her hand with a wan smile. "Same old, kinda. I took Angelo lunch, and talked to him a little, and..." He took a deep breath, staring at the tablecloth in front of him, "I can't do this whole Ireland thing until he's doing better, Terry. After what's happened to Elpis--I can't just walk away if they still need me."

Her hand tightened on his. "How long?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper. She'd been afraid of this, of exactly this. That the job, that his damned sense of responsibility would keep him here. "I..." She stopped, looking down at the table cloth, "I know this has been a difficult time. For you, for everyone at Elpis. And we can stay as long as it takes. But we made commitments too, Bobby."

"I know," Bobby said softly. "I swear, I still want to go. I just--" He took a deep breath, clinging to her hand, above all not wanting to disappoint her. "Look. Let me talk to Nate after he's had a few days to, uh...decompress, or whatever. I'll see what he thinks, how long he needs me to stick around. Ange doesn't know when he'll be back, just yet. And honestly, I can't really blame him." The last was said with a very direct look, as if to remind Terry of just how close to everything Angelo had been. "I don't want to put pressure on him to come back before he's ready to deal with the reminder. You know? And if I walk away...you know he'll do it."

There were some points on which Terry knew Bobby was unmovable so she bit her lip and nodded silently. If she asked, if she pressed...Bobby would do for her what she wanted. So she couldn't ask. "I'll talk to Sean. Tell him that you can't be coming so soon. We'll have him send the papers and I can fly over to finish up anything that needs to be done in person. And you can stay here and keep on. The Keep will run without a hand for a bit. Just have to stop the tours a while and it's a quiet season anyway." Selfishly, for a moment she resented Angelo though she knew it was unfair. He'd caused none of this but she had no other target. A shadowy organization was too ephemeral.

Great. Now Bobby would be letting down his father-in-law, too. "Wait! Just...let me talk to Nathan before we do anything, okay? Please? Let me see where everything stands." It had been so chaotic since the bombings, he wasn't really sure what Nathan wanted to do next, or how much help he'd need to do it, locally anyway.

Besides, Sean scared him. He didn't want to give the man any more reasons to hate him than he already had.

Terry shook her head, "I need to speak with him anyway. He'll understand, he's used to this sort of thing. We'll work something out and you'll have as much time as you need." She shifted her grip on his hand slightly, palm meeting palm. "We can make this be okay."

Bobby groaned, frustrated. "Please, sweetie? Don't talk to Sean about this yet. I mean--for all I know, we're only talking about a delay of like, an extra week. I don't want..." To let anyone else down by being selfish. "Just give me until the end of the week. If things haven't settled enough to talk to Nathan, then--we'll talk to Sean."

She looked a little startled. "I...Sure, if that's what you want. I really don't have time to call him before then. There's..." she broke off as the waitress bounced up to the table, all cheer and goodwill ready to rattle off the specials.

It never failed, did it? He summoned up a smile that would make his mother proud and ordered the steak, medium, and a strawberry lemonade, stealing glances at Terry the entire time, hoping she wasn't too disappointed with him.

Terry gave her order just as quickly with slightly less good grace, pointedly still holding onto Bobby's hand. The waitress pouted slightly as she left. "I really don't know what to do now, Bobby. Our plans are completely shot at this point and I don't have a clue where to go now." She gave him a half-pleading look, "Will you take care of all this?"

Oh, man--not those eyes. "Of course. I promise, Terry. I won't let this mess things up, I swear it." He had no fucking clue how he was going to pull it off, but somehow he'd manage to not disappoint anyone. Maybe he could put in some more extra hours at Elpis, get things squared away before they left.

She flexed her fingers against his, "That's not what I mean. I...I don't want you to rush. I want you to do whatever it is you have to in order to feel good about this. I just don't know how to manage it anymore. My plans are...Bobby, when we go to the Keep, that's home. We're going there to build a life that's ours. So I don't want you to have any regrets about it."

"I won't," Bobby said adamantly. "Look, I'm not talking months or years, here. I just need a few extra weeks, to make sure I'm not pulling yet another support out from under Elpis when they don't have enough to spare." Not that he thought he was that important to Elpis, in the grand scheme of things. It was more that there was only so much anyone could cope with in a given timeframe, and losing a member of his local support staff at this exact moment probably wasn't high on Nathan's wishlist.

Why couldn't he see that that was exactly her problem? That he was the one who had to set the timeline now and she couldn't control things. Terry pulled her hand away slowly, picked up her water and sipped it. "I know you need to stay. I'm sorry. I shouldn't...I want things to turn out okay. However that has to happen."

It wasn't like he wanted to stay. Now more than ever he just wanted to go, do something safe and easy and different at last. But he couldn't let people down like that. "Me, too, baby. I want this to happen, and as soon as possible, I promise."

He looked at her for a minute, then asked softly, "Are we okay?"

She set down her water and nodded, eyes a little wide. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't we be?" But her hands went into her lap to grip her napkin.

...Right. "Okay," Bobby said softly, leaning back and nursing his water silently, watching her with a vague expression of concern. She wasn't okay. They weren't okay. He just had no idea what to do about it.

The waitress brought Bobby's lemonade and gave him another flirtatious look. Terry pondered stabbing her with her fork. "We're okay," she repeated, "I'm having a tough time. I don't know. I'm helpless in all this."

Bobby didn't even notice the waitress, to his credit. He kind of stared at Terry incredulously, brow furrowing. "So am I," he retorted, feeling his frustration levels rise again. It was starting to feel like she resented him for trying to be a responsible adult! "Look. Tell me what you want me to do, Terry. I'll do it. Whatever you want." He slumped back in his chair, snatching his lemonade up to take a rather sullen sip.

Her cheeks flushed pink, not from embarrassment but from temper. "You don't understand," she snapped, "I don't want you to do anything. I can't ask you to do anything. I want to have everything back the way it was and I want to go home and I want our life. But I'm not going to ask you to do anything except take care of this. Because I don't know what else to do!"

Bobby's eyes shifted uncomfortably to the other diners nearby, his WASP upbringing asserting itself with a vengeance as her voice rose. "Fine. It'll be taken care of," he mumbled, setting his drink back on the table and fidgeting with his napkin. Not that he had any fucking clue how it'd be taken care of.

Oh, well that's all right then? So kind of him to agree? Terry shoved her chair back from the table and stood. "I'll be right back."

Bobby nodded, avoiding her eyes. So. This was going well. It wasn't like any of it was his fault, why was she getting mad at him, anyway? He sat and stewed, waiting for her to return.

In the restroom, Terry kicked the wall and muttered to herself in furious Irish. This wasn't fair. She was trying to support him and what was so wrong about wanting to let Sean know that they'd be delayed? She had offered to do what she could and he didn't want her to do anything but then he was mad when she told him that she was going to leave it in his hands. What more could she do? Her reflection was supremely unhelpful, observing only that she was about to ruin her eyeliner.

Terry took a deep breath, marshaling her self-control and blinked until the threatened tears vanished. She touched up her lip gloss and fingercombed her hair then sighed, feeling guilty. He was upset and she'd made him that way, even after all that he was dealing with right now. She hurried back to the table and knelt next to Bobby, sliding her hands over his knee, "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to make this harder."

One look at her and Bobby's anger melted away. He gave her a gentle smile and covered her hands with his own. "I know, baby. Neither am I." God, he loved her so much. "I promise you, I'll do whatever it takes to make this happen. To make our lives happen. As soon as possible." This time, it didn't seem to matter that they were making a scene. All that mattered was Terry looking up at him.

She smiled and nodded before getting back to her feet. She bent and kissed him firmly then wiped the lipgloss smear from his mouth with her thumb. "I know you will. I know."