Morgan and Sam

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

Morgan and Sam run across each other again and after a rocky start they make nice.

Sam had just landed on the front lawn after another of his flights around the city. He had been doing this for quite some time now and found himself spending even more time out with a broader search area. He felt just a bit more defeated each time he came back empty handed but he forced a smile back to his face each and every time. He felt he had the faith to do this; he could be the one who doesn't give up hope. He would owe his little brother at least that much since he left so early on in Jay's life. Pulling off his goggles, he stepped inside the mansion.

Morgan had spent a fair amount of time out on the archery range and it had done it's job to make her grumble about cold weather and how Africa never got this cold. She was walking toward the stairs with a cup of cocoa in her hands to warm them up, shivering lightly. Acclimation took too long for her tastes and she'd not spent time in a genuinely cold place that exceeded a few weeks before. Winter might actually turn her into an icicle. At least she had the complexion for it already.

On her way to the main stairs, though, she spied Sam's entrance. She recognized the expression as forced optimism after her eyes moved over him. You learned facial expressions easily studying people as much as she did and when she was bored she'd even taken to quietly studying the mansion's residents. The smile looked genuine enough but the set of his shoulders and the way his spine curved to slouch his posture indicated it wasn't real. "You alright there, mudflap?" First conversations left an impression and theirs about mudding had earned the poor guy an unattractive nickname, though it was said with some warm affection to counter what was likely his mood.

He found it to be an awkward question, considering recent events. He laughed a bit, a little forced but he was good at not just sounding sincere but becoming sincere. "I suppose I'm still on your hillbilly list?" He slowed for a moment so she could walk alongside him. He remembered her debate when they first met over if he was real or not and also some of her assumptions about him because of where he was from. He liked the woman well enough but he wasn't accustomed to being looked down on and he always got the feeling that was exactly what she was doing.

Morgan's head tilted to the side as she shrugged. There was a look of innocence on her face which was quickly followed by a smile to match the tone she'd used when she had spoken a moment ago. "There are much, much worse lists to be on, love. Unless you've something against being a hillbilly." She raised an eyebrow at him as if challenging him on his stance of pro or anti hillbilly. "Some of the other mansion inhabitants are even on some of those lists." Forge was chief among them. Morgan had mellowed a lot recently, particularly since borrowing Manuel's powers. She wasn't sure why but a lot of her intensity had died down.

"I'm not sure I'm thrilled with being what your idea of a hillbilly is." Sam was feeling glum and he knew it. He would have picked his mood up himself but Morgan had put him on the defensive the last time they had spoken and he didn't imagine now was a good time to be toyed with or dissected again. "Even if I am from the exact hills the term came from."

"I think you're assuming the association is a lot more negative than it is. If you tell me you plan to marry your first cousin and have loads and loads of mini-Guthries with her then that might change, but until then," she shrugged again. "New and foreign way of life, that's all. If the worst problem you had was being a strange life form to me then you'd be quite a ways ahead of the game. As it is," she let her voice trail off. As it is she knew it wasn't the worst of his problems because while she was missing a friend rather intensely she was well aware that one of the other people in that car had been Sam's brother. She could remember the piercing agony of her father's death with startlingly vivid detail. Morgan did not envy him.

Sam stuffed his hands into the pockets of his uniform as she mentioned the inbreeding stereotype and then as she trailed off. "If you don't mind, I'm going to have to pass on the recounting of Southern stereotypes today. Since we both know that I do have more problems then what people think of me." He tried to use his polite mannerisms to excuse himself from a conversation that looked like it was about to go the same way it had last time. Once was fine but today, right now, he didn't want to do anything but go back to his office and forget about the world again.

Obviously he wasn't quite following the point she was making about how she didn't, in fact, think all those stereotypes were true or applicable to him, but given all else going on she didn't bother to point it out either. "Wasn't planning to recount," was all she did say. She let silence fall as they walked side by side, steps mirroring one another's. After she thought it was a long enough pause for him to let go of the conversation he seemed to think she was heading for Morgan spoke again. "Seriously, are you doing alright, all things considered?"

"I'm fine. A little worn out maybe but it's the least I can do for him." With exception of comforting other people, Sam hadn't spoken about Jay at all and certainly not in a capacity acknowledging it was his loss. He was still refusing to admit he had lost anything or that it was even possible. "Thank you for asking." He got his smile on finally as he thanked her, glancing to her then back toward the direction they were walking.

"I had a friend in that car so I understand, to a point." To a point because Garrison being dead wouldn't hurt her even half as much as Jay being dead would hurt him and the rest of his family. "If you ever want help on the ground or anything else," she offered. Sitting still without answers made Morgan antsy and it may have been the exact reason why she kept throwing herself into any little project that presented itself. The number of times she'd cleaned and reorganized her room were threatening to get into triple digits. Any day now she'd move onto the common room of the suite and Laurie would brain her for moving everything around on a daily basis.

"I appreciate the offer." They both likely knew that Sam would never use it. He had already got the impression that his search was bordering on obsession in some people's minds. If he started recruiting help that would be even worse, he was sure. He didn't feel obsessed but there was the old adage that the insane didn't know they were insane. He imagined it stood for the obsessed as well.

Sometimes it wasn't about whether or not you were taken up on the offer. Morgan had learnt that from Aleister early on when he was teaching her not just how to shoot a gun but how to be a person who wasn't broken. Sometimes the whole point was about making the offer so it was known that someone cared enough to make it in the first place. Even if it wasn't someone who was particularly close to you or a friend. Hopefully for Sam it still counted even though they were little more than residents of the same space.

"You look like you need more sleep. You won't do any good if you go and collapse from too much searching, you know. Just make sure you sleep. Eat, too." Someone had to play nonjudgmental mom and after taking her eighteen year old suite mate out to get drunk the other night Morgan was feeling the part.

"I eat fine and sleep when I can." Truth was that he wasn't sleeping well but he handled that. Sam faced Morgan and smiled genuinely. "Thank you, for your concern." He hadn't really expected it from her and he was glad to be proven wrong. She had been the first to really check on him, Kurt aside. Roommates were always looking after each other.

She wasn't convinced that sleeping when he could was often enough but she wasn't going to press it. Morgan nearly said 'tis the season but even sarcasm couldn't stop that from being a morbid thought with friends and family missing, presumed dead. She veered toward a safer reply. "I have layers, who knew." Morgan's voice was light and she winked at Sam. You couldn't dwell too long lest you get dragged down into the depths of despair over the situation all over again. "Don't tell anyone though, it's so much easier when they don't realize."

"I'll just tell them it's layers like an onion. The deeper you go the more you cry." That's right, he had just laid out some country wisdom. Sam shot her a big, real smile when she joked and winked. He was glad to have someone to joke around with, even if it was only going to be for a moment. He didn't expect they were about to become best friends and that was likely due to him. Since he had returned he kept himself more secluded then he should have.

There was a split second of wide, red eyes before Morgan burst into momentary laughter. "That...might be more fitting than it should be." But she was still damn amused by it. The deeper you went with Morgan the more you realized she was actually a human being. She was sure that made the fact that she could turn that off and kill people without blinking all the more horrifying. It was one thing to be a monster without a conscious, another to be a killer with selectively applied morals.

Sam laughed a bit with her, smiling more and glancing to her more as they walked. He even pulled his hands back out of his pockets. "I might go to the rec room and try to catch a nap or relax a little, to make you worry less." He knew if it was for her then he wouldn't have to feel as bad about doing something for himself with how things were at the moment.

Morgan sipped her cooling cocoa before shooting him a lightly sarcastic look. "You can't say things like that to me, Mister Guthrie. Mostly because if I wander past there and find you not relaxing I'll be really heart broken." Morgan batted suddenly sad, puppy dog eyes at him and even pouted a bit. "You wouldn't want to go breaking my heart, would you?"

"I fully expect that I'm a bit to direct and simple to break the heart of someone with your layers and complexity." Sam said everything good-naturedly, nothing in there meant to offend. "You can come supervise if you need to, just to be safe. You might just have to suffer through a show on mudding or hog wrangling or something, though." He knew he brought the topic back up but he did feel more comfortable with her now, or less grumpy.

She gave him an over done sigh. "You underestimate your appeal. I'd explain it to you but then I'd out my crush on you." She gave him her best coy smile, one she'd perfected back in the days of living in a brothel. "If you make me watch things," she warned, "I'm likely to fall asleep in your lap." While her tone was still playful the warning was real. She notoriously fell asleep during movies or even hour long television shows. Except the history channel. Morgan had accidentally developed quite the love affair with that channel.

"I wouldn't be opposed to feeling appealing for a couple hours while you napped." Sam said with a laugh. He couldn't really wrap his mind around the idea of actually being appealing. He had dated before but living at the mansion humbled his view of how attractive he was. There were men here that caught every woman's attention and he was accepting of the fact he wasn't one of them. It honestly didn't even bother him. He had other talents.

A grin slid onto her lips, the real kind that only fully pulled one side of her mouth into the expression while the other side made only a slight effort to participate in the expression. "Well, in that case," an arm hooked through Sam's and Morgan placed a small kiss on his cheek. "One lap dweller coming up." Poor guy, he was stuck with her now. At least for a the next few hours.

Sam laughed and, with a slight blush and an 'aw shucks' look down and then back up, he embraced her arm and headed to the rec room with her. He knew Morgan's background and so he didn't take any of her flirting too seriously. He also knew that if he didn't want to be judged for being a 'hillbilly' he had better not judge her or anyone else based on background or any other things like that.