Wanda and Amanda

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda finds Amanda hard at work -- a little too hard.



The smell of something strong and spicy preceded Wanda's sudden appearance near Amanda's work space. She frowned down at her assistant, hunched over research material, and sighed. "Emulating me is very flattering until you start to take this whole 'work until you drop' thing a bit too serious," she said, shifting the boxes of take out food from hand to hand as they were still quite warm. She then waved it in front of Amanda, the movement followed by another fresh wave of spices.

Amanda opened her mouth to grumble, and then the smell of food caught her nose and she closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. In response, her stomach growled loudly, reminding her it had been... how long since she'd last eaten? A glance at her watch told her it had been far too long. "You're a life saver, Boss Lady," she said with a grateful grin as she shoved the scattered paperwork into a pile and put it to the side. "I lost track of time again. Pull up a pew."

Hooking a chair clear of papers or books with her foot, Wanda pulled it towards her before handing over some of the food. From the bag on her arm she produced forks and a couple of bottles of water. There was comfortable silence for a moment as both women dove into the food – neither of them had ever been shy about healthy appetites and they both could do with some refueling. Taking a sip of water, Wanda turned back to look at Amanda. "How goes the research?" she asked.

Swallowing a mouthful of curry, Amanda made a face. "Slow. Which is the usual, but it'd help if I could find something concrete on these Church of Humanity wankers." She nodded at the sticky note stuck to the top of her monitor, Irene's prophecy scrawled on it. "It makes too much sense for it not to be them, but I can't find anything to tie the whole crucifying mutants thing to them."

"What are the angles you're hitting currently?" She was feeling this out – there was the chance that Amanda was being, well, overly obsessed with the case due to personal involvement. Not that it was a bad thing, especially if she dug up dirt on the Church. Wanda snorted. Church, right. But there was a very good chance that Amanda could dig up vital information. If she didn't work herself into the ground.

"Well, before this whole protest thing, I was just looking for any kind of religious group with a history of crucifying those they don't like, which didn't get me very far. Tho' can I say, religion is completely fucked up? All this 'men are brothers, except when we don't like something about them, and then we're going to kill them in the name of God' bollocks makes me want to throw something." Amanda shook her head. "Once this lot turned up, I figured it was too much of a coincidence, so I've been digging into the group. Media first, then business records, that sort of thing. Plus cross-referencing any mutant deaths within a fifty mile radius of any of their headquarters."

"When religion fails us, there is always faith," Wanda murmured before attacking her food once more. She spoke up after the next mouthful. "What are the facts telling you right now?"

There was a frustrated sigh and Amanda reached for a piece of naan bread, tearing it with a little more vigour than was perhaps needed. "They're clean. That, or they're really fucking good at hiding things. Which I s'pose I could take to Ange as proof he isn't going to get crucified, but I want something more, y'know? Something he has to believe, no matter what."

She nodded, understanding completely. The prophesy had hit Angelo pretty hard and while he'd believe Amanda telling him everything was okay on the surface, his subconscious might not buy it. And it'd eat at him. "Well, keep at them for the time being. If they are hiding something, they cannot be so good as to cover all of their tracks. Have you sought out any former members of the Church of Humanity?"

"That was next, 'cept I think I'll need help on that one - 'm not exactly the sort of person religious nutters, even former ones, talk to easily." Amanda dipped a chunk of naan bread into her container. "Maybe I could get Angie to dress up like a Catholic school girl?" It was a lame joke, but the best Amanda could manage. It didn't help she didn't know if she was going to have a relationship at the end of all this. Or if she still had one now - Angelo hadn't said a word about her leaving, or her return.

A hand cupped Amanda's shoulder and Wanda gave it a quick squeeze. "I hear bribery works," she responded. "Amanda…it will work out in the end, I promise. Somehow. Speaking of our friendly neighborhood precog, have you asked her to take a Look into any of this?" If she gave Amanda enough avenues to explore, maybe this wouldn't eat her from the inside out.

"Been there, done that, got her to read Angelo the riot act 'bout believing too much in prophecy." Amanda gave Wanda a weak, wry smile. "I was going to go talk to Tante, but she sent word via Remy that I know better than to use powers first, without thinking 'bout the options, and that's how I got onto doing it this way instead." She sighed again, popping the curried bread in her mouth and chewing before speaking again. "Isn't anything ever easy? I feel like I've been running around in circles, and I'm not even sure if it's going to be worth anything."

Tante was a wise, if utterly frightening, woman. "From where I stand, I think you have found a good chunk of valuable information on something that we might have come up against in the future. Granted, it looks like nothing now but if they were to pull something more than a simple protest? Forewarned and all of that. But here's my advice: wrap up what you were doing. Go home, Amanda, rest, shower. It might feel like you need to go, go, go on this right now but you're too involved. You might not be seeing the forest for the trees, as it were."

"But..." Amanda hesitated, looking at the pile of papers almost guiltily. If she was researching, then at least she was doing something, instead of wondering if Angelo would ever forgive her for what she'd said. Instead of waiting around, too nervous to bring anything up again, since she didn't want to cause another fight. But Wanda knew what she was talking about, and the Boss Lady was someone Amanda trusted implicitly. Or as implicitly as Amanda could trust anyone. "I am a bit tired," she admitted. "Maybe one night off won't hurt."

"No it won't and you just might find things look a little better come the morning -- after some rest." She gestured sternly with her spoon. "And plenty of food. Or else I will recruit Marie-Ange into cooking something for you as a deterrent."

Amanda held up her hands in mock-surrender. "Not that! Anything but that! I'll be good!"

Wanda laughed, some of her worry towards Amanda easing with the promise of rest. They were already far too obsessive in their job, any more and it might start a bad downward spiral. "Just keep in mind," she said cheerfully, "that I have no compunction against cheating. Far, far from it." She'd gleefully set Marie-Ange and even Doug against Amanda if she needed to.