[Forge and Jennie] - Friday Afternoon

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Forge walks in on Jennie as she's having an anxiety attack about leaving school grounds. He actually offers a solution that helps, in spite of himself.



Okay, overnight bag, check. Homework assignments if Grandmama Patience got too friendly after too much Chardonnay? Check. Car keys? Check. New cellphone? Check.

Anxiety attack about leaving school grounds by herself? Oh yeah, check.

Jennie sat in the kitchen, staring at her hands and going over her mental checklists repeatedly. Her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it was going to tear a hole in her chest. She'd done the overnight thing a million times before, it was no problem. She could do the drive in her sleep, knew exactly where to park, and the doorman never even bothered to harass her anymore.

Calm. Be calm. You can do this. Jennie sighed loudly and put her head on the countertop, trying to concentrate on the cool tile on her forehead and not her ever-increasing paranoia.

"Hey now, if I don't get to sleep in my lab, you don't get to sleep in the kitchen." Forge quipped, walking by and poking Jennie lightly in the shoulder. "Don't make me give you Mister Marko's patented 'this school pays good money to provide you with room and board' speech, I think I can do it from memory now."

"Mmm." Jennie said, lifting her head from the countertop and looking at Forge. "Sorry," she said distractedly, looking at the keys she had clutched in her hand. She'd been holding onto them so tightly that there were indentations in her palms.

"You look tired. Caffeine?" Forge extended a can of Red Bull, thought about it, then pulled it back. "Wait, no. No caffeine for you. You'll start organizing all the canned goods in the pantry by expiration date."

"I'm fine." Jennie said, tapping the keys on the countertop. Come on, come on, ride it out. Her eyes flicked to the young inventor. Oh hell, why not? He knew just as well. "Dude, can I ask you a question?

Forge popped the can open and took a long drink, then nodded. "Anything, always. You know that. What's up?"

"Okay, when you were kidnapped by Magneto a while ago, how did you get over the paranoia thing? Like, I have to go visit my Dad this weekend. And normally I'd have no problems, but the thought of going from here to there by myself is giving me ...how shall we say?" Jennie gestured airily, in spite of the tightness of her voice. "Gut-clenching terror?"

Setting the can down, Forge thought about that one. "I didn't," he said after a few moments. "I just started accepting the realities of the world I live in. Because of who and what I am, there will always be some aspect of danger. Scares me to death, but I'm living with it." He drummed his fingers on the countertop, then sighed. "You can be paranoid, but sometimes they really are out to get you. Magneto, Lense, Masque, Campbell, there'll be more. I just decided to stop thinking of myself as a victim."

"I'm not a victim," Jennie said fiercely. She couldn't forget the cold and clammy fingers on her chin and the dark look in that horrible bastard's eyes. Never would she be his victim. Never never never. "Or-- Argh. I was but I'm not. I'm not going to be anymore." She swung the keys around her finger. "I signed up to be a trainee," she said, almost casually.

Thankfully, Forge wasn't taking a drink at the time. "I... okay? Well then." If she was going to drop that particular bomb, it was only polite to retaliate in kind. "I suppose I'll be seeing you in the locker room soon enough, then.

That got a small smile out of Jennie. "Really? There must be something in the water, Marius and Kyle signed up as well. Can you imagine? Us? On the team?" Before Kyle had brought it up on Wednesday, Jennie had always figured that the team was something that was above her. That other people joined the team, people who were stronger and full of conviction. But then Kyle pointed out if Clarice could join, they'd probably accept the likes of her.

"Oh, I'm not joining the team, exactly," Forge clarified. "I just know that sometimes they need me, and I'd rather not be a liability if that happens. I mean, there's precedent - no one made Dr. Bartlet put on a uniform and take a silly codename, for example. I just... I want to know I'm making a difference where I can."

Reaching out, he patted Jennie's hand supportively. "I think it's awesome, seriously. And not just for the idea of you in the uniform. Rawr, totally." He grinned and cocked his head. "So you're heading to your dad's?"

She gave him the obligatory punch in the side for the comment, but it was half-hearted. "Yeah, supposedly. My over-night that got put on hold until I quit looking like a monster." Instead she made do with thrice-daily phonecalls. This entire week it had been multiple promises that she would come for the weekend and no, she didn't need someone to come and get her. Now, however, her teenage pride was slamming into a wall of paranoia. Jennie sighed and twirled her keys. "Now I have to convince myself to walk out the front door."

"This is where you avail yourself of large brawny men to accompany you," Forge said, puffing out his chest dramatically, then settling back into his habitual casual slouch, "but since you don't know any, want some company?"

"I don't know," Jennie said, looking over her shoulder and glaring at the screen door that separated the kitchen from the porch. "I'm driving, so I don't know how you'll get back. Plus, no offense, even pairs still make me nervous."

"So we'll grab Marius to make it a trio, and crash at Chez Niarchos with you. It's like crashing a wedding, only without the annoyance of, y'know, a wedding. Besides, aren't you supposed to be the family embarrassment from the wrong side of the tracks?" Forge asked with a wide smile, "How will you ever live up to your reputation if you're not dragging in strange men at odd hours?"

"How is it that I surround myself with people who have no sense of anything resembling tact?" Jennie said, glaring at Forge. That comment stung, but it was Forge, and he wouldn't know that he'd said anything wrong. "Fortunately it's just my father in residence at the moment, Liv's on a school trip, and Grace is doing some sort of charity thingy in California. She actually does stuff other than spend my Dad's money, who knew?" Jennie shrugged. "Oh, and the boys. But they're easily distracted by bright shiny objects. In fact," Jennie peered at Forge's arm through half-lidded eyes.

"Ah, here we go. 'Forge, distract the munchkins so I can study for finals?' 'Certainly, Jennie darling. I shall wow them with gadgets and gizmos.' See, who needs tact?" Forge wiggled his fingers and scooted past Jennie to reach for a box of Powerbars in the cupboard. "It'll be fun. Besides, with half the place on vacation to Vegas and most of the others heading into New York with Amanda, this place is going to be a ghost town."

Jennie snorted. "Might as well ask Marius to come with us then. If he feels up to leaving the mansion. Just a fair warning, I believe the pair of us are cursed." She rubbed her arm and felt the knot of tension in her back slowly unwind, sighing heavily as Forge left to get Marius.

One day I'll be able to go out by myself. One day. Just not today.