xp_logs | Nathan and Lil, backdated to December 23rd

Backdated to December 23rd. Nathan fires Lil from her temporary job at Elpis. It's more or less an act of kindness.

She'd just about had it. She could battle fires with out blinking; could go five, six, seven rounds hand-to-hand and not even begin to tire. But this? The mind numbing monotony of shuffling papers and filing was putting Lil into a coma. Stuck in her 'cubical of the damned' as she'd dubbed the little desk she occupied, the Amazon came to the firm conclusion that if she was forced to continue doing office work for the rest of her stay at Xavier's, at least half her salary was going to marked for repairs seeing as she'd been employed by Elpis for less than a week and had already had to force herself not to put a hole (or three) in the wall. And to make matters worse, Lil was out of chcolate. "God, I need to hit something," the blonde muttered to herself as she shook her head, causing the golden ponytail to swing. "Repeatedly."

The office door opened and Nathan strode in, suit-clad, briefcase-carrying, and looking fairly disgruntled in a way that suggested the meeting in New York hadn't gone very well. He paused, looking around for a moment - the furrow between his eyebrows grew deeper to see Juliette's empty desk - and then muttered something under his breath before he turned his attention to Lil.

"They left you alone in the office, I see."

"No shit," Lil grumbled automatically before registering the voice of that belonging to Nathan. Her head shot up and a fleeting look of terror sparked in her eyes as she mentally kicked herself. Way to talk to the boss, Lillian. "Sorry. I mean, yeah, they did."

Nathan gave her a brief, alarmingly shark-like grin as he headed over to his own desk. "Well, I appreciate the diligence," he almost drawled. She was a good temp. But some of the youngsters had already opened book on how long until she snapped and ran screaming from the boathouse. Office grunt-work definitely wasn't 'her'.

"Well, I appreciate having a job," she returned, talking through her teeth as she smiled an obviously forced grin. Paper work was too much like school: sit down, eyes on your paper and listen to teacher. Which is exactly why she lasted only one semester as a business major. "Plus, I don't have anywhere else to be," Lil said more truthfully. Everyone seemed to be running around with Holiday Madness; catching planes home or shopping for loved ones... neither of which Lil had to be concerned with this year. She'd already sent her father his gift along with a basket of cheer back to the Hudsons and considered herself finished.

Nathan set his briefcase down. "You can wind up feeling at loose ends around here at this time of year," he conceded. "Especially if you're new to the place. Do you have any plans at all?"

Lil shook her head slowly but kept her eyes on the papers she was currently sorting into alphabetical order. "Not really. Dinner or something; no one I've talked to has been real clear on what's happening. My suite-mate's going to cook for whoever's interested so it might just end up being that."

"Well," Nathan said, perfectly innocently, "I could always leave you a key. And a list of more filing to do over the holidays..."

She tried not to snarl. She really did but the blonde woman couldn't help it when her lip curled and the tiniest of growls escaped her throat. "No thanks," Lil said as sweetly as possible then lifted her head just a bit. "Unless you need me to." Please say no. Please say no. Just because she had nothing to do but sleep didn't mean she wouldn't enjoy that.

Nathan nearly burst out laughing. Something resembling a snigger did escape, and as Lil looked at him, he raised both hands defensively, collapsing into his chair. "I'm sorry - just, if you could sense what I sense you projecting right now... you've done a perfectly good job around here these last few days, Lil, but I somehow don't think office work is for you."

Lil didn't know if she should be embarrassed about whatever it was she was 'projecting' or to add her own laugh to his. She settled for sighing in relief instead. "Thank God. No offense, but you're lucky I can't get paper cuts; otherwise, you'd probably need to replace this desk after I leave."

"Why don't we call it a day?" Nathan suggested, a wicked sparkle in his gray eyes. "I mean, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I'm sure that if you had to, you could find something to do with your time."

"You sure?" Lil asked, one eyebrow quirked in disbelief. "I mean, you just got in and I can finish this stuff up despite my only qualification being 'tall enough to reach the top shelf in the filing cabinet.'" Was he firing her?

Nathan opened and closed a few drawers until he found what he was looking for. "Ah, Juliette, always prepared..." He made a few quick calculations in his head, then wrote down a figure on the cheque, adding his signature above Juliette's. The cheque floated over to Lil. "There. I've paid you through tomorrow - consider it a Christmas bonus, and a thank-you."

The blonde blinked hard as she took the cheque into her hands and giving it a once over, looked back up at him. "This the nice way of saying I'm not welcomed back after the holidays?" Lil asked though there was an obvious lack of disappointment in her voice.

"Well, unless you're into masochism..." Nathan tilted his head at her. "Seriously," he went on. "You need to find something you like doing. If you wind up needing to cover a gap in income after Christmas, by all means, come knocking on my door again. But you're obviously not loving the work, and frankly, I can't blame you. This is not the most exciting side of what we do."

Okay, now the disappointment was creeping in. "Thanks," Lil said, dropping the papers onto her desk before tucking the cheque into her purse. "I appreciate the opportunity to help out even though, yeah, it's definitely not something I'm very good at." Making cocktails and smashing skulls, neither of those seemed very helpful here. At least, not when it came to filing.

Pushing back her chair, the tall woman collected her bag then strolled over to his desk with an outstretched hand. "Thanks again, Mr. Dayspring. You ever need someone to knock a few people around, give me a call."

"You're making me feel like a monster now, you know," Nathan said, and shook her hand. "You were perfectly good at it. It's just... not really a job for a grown-up." He eyed her for a moment. "You handled the frustration pretty well, though," he said, the corner of his mouth tugging upward slightly.

Her brow drew as her hand dropped to her side. "What do you mean? I nearly punched a hole in one of the cabinets when I couldn't find the file I needed and almost broke the printer when it jammed. Twice."

"Yeah, but you didn't yell at anyone, did you? Didn't take your frustration out on any of your fellow employees... hell, I don't manage not to do that sometimes. Admittedly I am the boss and I have certain privileges on that front," Nathan said, not quite blithely.

Lil shook her head in answer to his question. She hadn't yelled or hit any of the others (whose names she still had trouble remembering) when her frustrations mounted. "I was only here a couple days," she said, her lip twitching up in a half-grin. "If it had been another week, things mighta been different."

"You do need to find something down here that you like doing," Nathan said with a brief chuckle. "Presumably you're going to be here for a while for training. I know you'd said something about bartending -there are bars around here, you know."

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to see if I can find anywhere that's hiring. I've done some waitressing and bouncing as well so I'm hoping that between those I can come up with something after the holidays." Assuming she could secure transpo to and from.

"Well, there are some places in Salem Centre, and the train's a pretty direct way to get into New York itself if you don't mind the commute. You're not visibly a mutant, which might work to your advantage in the city, after the fall they've had..."

Again the Amazon nodded then looked a bit puzzled, unable to recall if she'd spoken the part about transportation out loud. Three years without telepaths had definitely caused her to drop her guard. "Thanks... I think." Lil continued to frown but shook it off. "I don't mind the commute; bigger cities mean more opportunities and I'm sure New York can always use more security."

Interesting. He had certainly heard the thought about traveling, but it wasn't as if he'd been responding directly to it. His lips quirked briefly and ruefully, and he told himself to let it go. It wasn't as if he could tell her not to jump to conclusions without revealing that he'd heard her jumping to conclusions. Which rather negated his point.

"Probably true," he said instead. "In some respects, the city's trying very hard to get back to business. Things are still pretty unsettled, though. I can sense that, anytime I head in for a meeting."

"Can't imagine why," Lil snarked, crossing her arms over her chest with a little frown. "But yeah, I'm gonna hit the cement after the holiday madness settles and see if anything's around. I'm not real picky." She could handle herself; being the size she was more men wanted to get handsie with her than brawl and she was equally skilled at discouraging both.

"You should be at least a little picky," Nathan said, raising an eyebrow briefly. "You're here primarily for training, right? So you need something that's at least a little flexible - although I'm sure Scott and Ororo will do their best to work with your schedule. They're pretty good that way. I've been known to run through Danger Room sessions past eleven at night."

"Less picky means I can look into the little hole-in-the-wall places that'll cater to hours that start after eleven," Lil pointed out, smirking again. "Still, training is first. Then gym time." There was still a lot she had to accomplish in that area, too. "Finding a job's third."

"Sounds like youv'e got all your priorities in order. Makes me admire the energy of the young," said the man who worked fifteen hour days more often than not. "Best of luck with the job hunt after Christmas, then. I wish I had some leads for you, but all the bar owners I know live a long, long way form here."

"All the ones I know live even father," the blonde replied with a little shrug before she extended her hand once more. "Thanks again for the job and the advice. I definitely appreciate it... especially the paycheque part."