xp_logs | Red X: Reconstruction - Crystal and Laurie

While in San Diego, Crystal's and Laurie's views on helping people come to light.

Laurie hopped down from the pick up truck and walked over to the chairs and tables that had been set up a little ways from the construction site so that workers could take a break. Jacob was well able to set up the grill without her and she figured she'd pull some of the tables and chairs over to serve as a bench for the food.

It was then that she noticed Crystal landing a little ways away, setting down a rather large stack of wood which several workers quickly descended upon.

"Crystal!" she called out, waving happily at the older woman.

"Good afternoon, Laurie," Crystal replied with a smile. "What have you done today?"

"Cooking, lots and lots of cooking." Laurie replied, setting up the tables side by side and resettling the chairs close by as she answered. "Not that I'm complaining, it's been a lot of fun, and I've got heaps to tell Ms Dane when I get back to school. How about you?"

"I have not been involved with any sort of cooking, let alone 'lots and lots'," Crystal said, looking a bit amused. By now, she knew that she could cook, she simply preferred to avoid it. Hiding out in an abandoned house for a week with your insane cousin locked in a room didn't leave much room for having someone else cook for you. "Today I have helped move materials around and acted as a translator."

"Oh?" Laurie asked, surprised. "I didn't know you knew Mexican."

Then again, she'd never asked Crystal whether she knew Mexican, but if she'd thought about it, she probably would have thought she'd know something like French, or Italian, something like that.

"Yes, I am fluent in Spanish," Crystal told Laurie. "I grew up quadrilingual and am fluent in Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish."

"You don't find the different dialect confusing?" Laurie asked, curious as to how Mexican Spanish and Spanish Spanish differed. She knew they did, she'd just never been great at languages herself and so mostly stuck to English and the Japanese that Nori had taught her.

"They are different, yes," Crystal explained, "but there are different variations of English, are there not? People from different parts of the world may speak the same language, yet they will have different accents, different ways to spell the same word, and even different words altogether."

"That's true." Laurie acknowledged, watching the workers bustling back and forth around them, continuing the business of getting San Diego rebuilt. "It feels good, doesn't it? To be helping like this, rather then having to go in and protect people from crazies, or cope with something blowing up, or being attacked."

"I am not in the habit of going somewhere to protect people from 'crazies', Laurie," Crystal said. She'd done it once, out of necessity, and she hoped she'd never have to do it again. "I came to San Diego after the earthquake to help, and I am here now, because this is not a situation involving any variation of fighting."

"I guess I'm a little focussed on the team sometimes." Laurie admitted apologetically. "I forget that not everyone is an X-man, or wanting to be an X-man. You've never even thought of it, not even a little?"

Crystal thought Laurie should focus more on school and her behavior towards others, but this was not something she was about to vocalize to Laurie. This was one of her concerns; it seemed that more often than not, being an X-Man took precedence over being a teacher, or in Laurie's case, being a student. "Why would I think about it?" Crystal asked. "I am interested in teaching, in being able to be there at all times for the students should I be needed. I have no desire to be called away to engage in battle."

"I suppose it's a difference in how we look to help people," Laurie mused, shifting from one foot to the other and looking back over her shoulder to where Jacob had almost finished setting up. "And I think I've got to go, looks like we're ready to start cooking again."

Clearly, this was not a conversation Laurie wished to have, and Crystal was not very eager to be involved in such a conversation, either. Whatever what people might think, Crystal was not against the idea of the X-Men; she just didn't like certain aspects of the way the team functioned. Clearly, being a part of the X-Men meant a great deal to Laurie; Crystal would never wish to discourage her from helping people, even if she didn't approve of her helping people in this way now.

"Have fun," Crystal said with a smile.

"You too." Laurie said with an easy grin before turning and dashing back to where Jacob was standing. She was definitely going to have to ask him to visit the mansion when he got a chance, Lorna would love him.