Community Service: Cain & Adrienne

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The day after Inez's outburst, Cain and Adrienne try and smooth things over with the owner of the diner.



Cain let the large pickup rattle to a stop as he surveyed the main street of Salem Center. While the town had grown remarkably since he was a teenager, they'd managed to keep most of the old landmarks. One of which was the Jefferson Diner, although the tarp over one of the windows and the angry-looking owner sweeping up outside were obviously new.

He let out a low whistle and turned towards his passenger. "Seems our girl made herself a mess."

Still in the tail end of a private session of fuming, Adrienne took several moments to answer. She'd wanted to call her driver to transport herself and Marko in one of her towncars in an attempt to appear sophisticated and affluent in front of the shop owner, but they were in the ridiculous pickup. It was more friendly, neighbourly... and loud, Adrienne thought to herself with a scowl. "I should have put one of those electric dog collars around her neck," she muttered to Marko, "the ones that are supposed to teach good behaviour. 'Should have done it when she offered to chuck a client's car in the river." She scowled again when she opened the car door and surveyed the distance between the truck and the ground. For a brief moment the psychometrist considered asking Marko to help her down, but Marko scared the bejeesus out of her, so she slid off the seat and climbed down unceremoniously, marching over to the man sweeping up outside the diner. "We need to speak to the owner. We're from Xavier's."

"Sanjay Patel." The man said, although not looking particularly interested in talking to anyone. "The diner won't be open until early next week. If you're looking for lunch, I suggest you go further down the road."

"Nah, we're kinda here about that," Cain said with an apologetic shrug. "The little gal what busted up your place, she's a student up at the school. She works for Miss Frost here as well. We wanted to talk to you about what happened, maybe come to some kind of arrangement?"

"I'll pay to have your diner repaired and cleaned and you'll drop the charges against her," Adrienne said firmly, her tone implying that it wasn't a request but a casual, polite statement of what was going to happen.

"No, I won't. I'm very busy here, so if you'd please." The man turned away from Adrienne without even a pause, resuming his cleaning of the damage done, sweeping shards of glass away from what had been a glass fronted door, and now was taped up with cardboard boxes.

Cain sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Look, we're just trying to smooth things over here," he said calmly. "I know it ain't easy to fix something like this. But the kid, she didn't mean no harm. Things just got a little out of hand."

Adrienne motioned to Marko to grab a dustpan that was lying nearby. She wasn't about to touch it, but maybe if Marko helped Patel with the cleaning the restauranteur would be in a better mood. "Temple doesn't normally cause any trouble," she tried to explain, conveniently forgetting about her earlier statement to Marko about needing to get Inez a diciplinary dog collar. "She wasn't intending for any damage to be done; as my colleague has said, the situation got out of hand. Teenagers lose their tempers occasionally, Mister Patel. You're a reasonable man; I'm sure you can understand that."

"You are going to try and tell me about teenagers? For almost twenty years, that's who I've worked around. They come in and tell dirty jokes, talk too loud, get into fights. I've seen every kind of rivalry and nonsense that a teenager can do from the other side of the counter." Patel stopped and leaned on his broom, looking directly at the both of them. "She could have killed those boys. She tore apart my diner without even thinking. You're right, she was just a teenager who lost her temper, but she is able to destroy a booth and nearly kill three idiots when she does. I'm sorry, but the charges stay."

"And what's that gonna tell her?" Cain asked. "That because of what she is, she's gonna get the hammer dropped on her? Yeah, she's strong as an ox, and about as stubborn, too. But you point her the right direction, give her a chance to see she can be something better, she'll learn."

The big man thought for a moment, then held up a finger. "Tell you what. What if she comes here and helps fix what she broke? Or helps you out with what you need - show her firsthand what comes out of the trouble she caused. You give her the chance to work it off, and learn something in the process, she'll learn from it," he said.

Marko had taken the words right out of Adrienne's mouth about the charges not teaching Inez anything except how prejudiced the world was, so she kept her mouth shut, face brightening at Cain's suggestions for how Temp could make amends. "Miss Temple is a very bright young woman, Mister Patel," Adrienne told the proprietor warmly, "and she already understands the consequences of her actions and how wrong it was to lose her temper, but my colleague has an excellent point about this being an opportunity for her to learn from her mistakes in a way that will be a lot more meaningful in the long run than having her charged."

"You want to protect her. I understand that. But would you be so forgiving if she had used a firearm to threaten those boys? Fired bullets into my tables and windows to scare them because she was angry?" Patel's mouth locked into a hard line. He was angry, but his eyes told another story as well; fear. Obviously Inez' actions had bothered him deeply, just how easily his life and livelihood could be ended by the lack of judgement of a single teenager. "I occasionally am told by some influential members of this town that I should consider not allow mutants in my diner; that it would be looked on 'favourably'. I have always said no. I understand something about being different in a place which is overwhelming something you are not. Teenagers are teenagers, whether they are green or can fly doesn't really matter. I thought so before. Now, you're asking me to drop charges on a young woman who could have killed some boys over normal stupid talk, because you say she understands the consequences. I thought teaching them that was the job of your school! That they went there to learn to control their powers, not get special consideration for nearly destroying my business because they are upset!"

"Mister Patel," Adrienne began, struggling to keep her voice level, "I understand how upset you are about the danger you and your patrons were put in. But what you're overlooking here is that she didn't use a firearm. She didn't fire any bullets or even hurt anyone. With her powers, she could have done so easily, but she didn't. We're not asking you to reward Miss Temple with special consideration for 'nearly destroying' your business. We're just hoping you can understand that while she may have been extremely stupid in losing her temper at all, and though she may have a long way to go with her studies at the school, it would only do more harm to her to bring charges against her. The course you're adament on pursuing is only going to make her more angry and bitter and more likely to lose her temper in the future. She's only just started at the school, Mister Patel," she psychometrist added, clearly pleading now, "please don't send her to jail."

Sanjay Patel considered her for a long moment, mind working quickly behind his eyes. "You say that she's learning control? That she's being taught to consider her power in relation to normal people?"

He looked back at the diner. "The damage could well be more than ten thousand dollars. My insurance company is coming to evaluate it tomorrow. They say I should not allow mutants in the diner either."

Sensing that she was beginning to make some headway, Adrienne nodded emphatically. "She's only been with us for a couple of months," she assured the diner's proprietor, leaving out the fact that she herself hadn't been at Xavier's much longer than Temp, "so she's still learning. Miss Temple has a lot of work to do, clearly, but she'll have an even more difficult time of things with a charge like yours sticking to her." Her hands went up defensively so Patel wouldn't think she was being accusatory. "It's certainly your choice, Mister Patel, whether you feel that involving the authorities further in this situation is truly necessary. Just as it's your choice whether or not you continue to allow mutants in your diner. You have your customers and your business to protect- as a business owner myself, I completely understand that. But there have been so many mutants over the years- especially students- who have come to the Jefferson Diner to eat and socialize who have caused no trouble whatsoever. Keeping mutants out now would be like punishing all of them for something only one person did."

"You say she is learning. Fine. I'll see for myself. You pay for the damages. If I drop the charges, this girl can come work for me. She does until she's earned the same amount as the damages. I want your word, and Mister Xavier's, that if she misses a day without good reason, damages the diner by losing her temper, or even so much as shakes a fist at a person in my diner, you will take responsibility." He let out a breath. "They have been coming here for years. You let her know what she's now responsible for."

"You got it, Mister Patel," Cain said with a nod. "She'll make good, you got my word on that."

"Mine too," Adrienne answered unnecessarily, beaming. She wasn't incredibly keen on the whole 'you will take responsibility' part, since Adrienne wasn't entirely sure Temp wouldn't lose her temper any more, and she made a mental note to give Inez a thorough hissy-fit-type lecture over the fact that Inez's free time was now undoubtedly going to be taken up here instead of working for her own company, but on the whole she was pleased with the outcome of the events. "Thank you, Mister Patel.You won't regret this."