Bishop and Adrienne

[x-bishop.livejournal.com]

Bishop goes to help Adrienne refresh her marksmanship. She also asks him about Manny but slyly. She learns Bishop minds his own business.

The shooting range had a distinctive smell that Adrienne had forgotten about. Though she wasn't particularly fond of cordite, sweat, and other whiffs of things she couldn't put her finger on in general, on the whole the smell gave her a small smile. She'd started shooting right after Steven's death, as part therapy and part self-defense against future abusive types, so the smell of the shooting range represented, quite sappily, her first experience of real self-empowerment.

Of course, it wouldn't do to be grinning like an idiot for Bishop to see her, so Adrienne wiped the smile off her face. She also wasn't entirely sure she should be inside without Bishop, so she headed back out and leaned back against the wall of the front entrance to wait for her escort.

Once he stepped up, Bishop opened the door for her. "Trying not to smile just makes it worse." he said helpfully. "I've known a lot of women that probably like guns more than anything else. It's an empowerment thing and there's nothing wrong with it." Most of those women were rape victims and battered spouses in his experience. He'd met more than the occasional average shooter that enjoyed escaping the perception of being the dominated sex, however.

Having forgotten how perceptive Bishop was, Adrienne frowned slightly. "I don't like guns more than anything else," she corrected almost guiltily. "I like clothes, and chess, and money, and then guns." She gave him a nod of thanks for opening the door for her and slipped inside the building. "Thank you for agreeing to give me some pointers," she added, staying close to the door so she could fall in behind him, unsure as to what the procedure or protocol was now.

"It's not a problem. The more people that know how to operate firearms the safer we'll all be." Bishop lead Adrienne through the main entrance and onto the range. He tended to take the less experienced down to the last lane so that they had less to focus on and so their target would be clear. He pulled his pistol and laid it on the counter, pulling down eye wear and hearing protection. "You know the basic operations of a sidearm?"

Smiling, Adrienne clapped earmuffs and goggles onto her head, took the pistol and cleared it, pointing it downrange with her finger away from the trigger, ejecting the magazine, and locking the slide to the rear before checking to see if it was loaded. "I used to have a .38 Smith and Wesson before it was confiscated by your buddies, so I'm more familiar with the revolver, but I used to observe people using Glocks at the range, so I've seen the basics."

"Mine's mostly like a Glock. It has a grip safety, though." He pointed it out for her. "If you've never fired a semi-automatic, the recoil is more up than a revolver's back. You'll get the hang of it in a few shots I'm sure." Since she seemed to know what she was doing, Bishop just stepped back and put on his protection.

After Bishop was properly attired, Adrienne took a stance and fired off six shots in rapid succession, adjusting slightly with each shot. She hit the paper each time, but only two of the shots hit the silhouette. "Damn," she muttered when she'd finished, turning to Bishop. "That is quite the recoil. Alright, what am I doing wrong?"

"Just take your time and get a feel for it. I won't be able to give you any advise until you get a bit more settled in your shot groups." When he was in the ESU division of NYPD he did quite a bit of weapons training and he often found people were just a bit nervous and overzealous. Simply firing for a while tended to cure that.

Shrugging, Adrienne turned back to the target and kept firing, emptying the magazine. She did feel more settled when the clip was empty, but her shots were not nearly as good as they'd once been. She was definitely rusty. With a sigh, she hit the button to retrieve the paper target from the end of the lane, a frown marring her face. "Fix me," she said to Bishop with a whimper. "I didn't used to be this awful. Show me how the pro does it?"

"It's better if you do all the shooting." Bishop had a tendency to make pistols fail lately but it would also be better for her to do the firing herself. "You're 'slapping the trigger,' he motioned to the side to side motions her shot group was making. "and you're also anticipating the recoil." After dragging his finger over the vertical angle the shots were also making he replaced the sheet and began to wheel it back out. "If you just take your time and squeeze slowly, let the shot surprise you. Some of the basics that you probably haven't had to do in a while."

With a determined nod, Adrienne reloaded the pistol and kept Bishop's suggestions in her head as she emptied another clip into the target. When she stopped to reload again, she turned to speak to Bishop but the task at hand was furthest from her mind. "You know Manuel, right?"

"Pretty well, I like to think." He leaned back against the wall, curious now. The topic change wasn't exactly lead into or usual considering they were at a shooting range. He knew that he had moved out of the mansion recently and assumed that was probably the topic that was about to come up.

Reloading again, the psychometrist rolled her eyes at the stoicism of her companion. "Did you meet him at the mansion? Through Emma? Or... through your work, maybe?" Adrienne was still curious about why Manuel hadn't taken advantage of her at the hotel, and also why he had said not to tell Remy.

"I ran across him on the journals, I believe. We play chess together after my work-outs at the mansion." Bishop didn't reply to the eye roll. He knew some people asked one question when they really wanted the answer to another. If he'd been a psychic he'd anticipate that but he wasn't and he didn't. He had learned a long time ago to use that as a technique to get information from people.

Okay, so not through work. Interesting. Beginning to feel comfortable with the pistol, Adrienne fired another clip, slowly and more smoothly than she had been. "The mansion could use a chess club," she mused with a smirk. "I haven't exactly been playing much since I arrived but I used to play quite frequently. Manuel hasn't mentioned anything about me to you, has he?"

"He hasn't. I haven't asked about the recent events that have been news but he's out and I figure it's not any of my business." Bishop had read Jubilee's mention and he figured that was where this conversation was headed. He anticipated playing messenger in the near future since he wasn't any good as an information source.


"Good answer," Adrienne muttered. She turned to Bishop and smirked. "How come every time I bring up chess with you you evade me? Are you afraid to play against a woman?"

"Why would you think I'm afraid to play against a woman instead of being concerned about playing against you for some other reason?" He laughed softly and smirked.

Grinning, the psychometrist retrieved her paper target and studied it. "Ah, so the truth comes out. You've heard of my chess-playing prowess and you're afraid of playing me." She frowned at the holes in the target- still inconsistent groupings- and loaded another one, then loaded the gun again. When the target had made its way back to its position she emptied the clip once again, then recalled the target and put it next to the others, waiting for his comments.

"We can play when you want." Bishop said with a laugh. He wasn't one to take playing chess to seriously or to be afraid of someone. When the target came closer he leaned in to look at it, taking a long moment. "I think you're still anticipating the shot and that's why it's all over the place. Did you learn breath control techniques before when you were shooting?" He wasn't sure at all who had taught her or how much she knew.

"I'd like that very much, Mister Bishop," Adrienne said with a smile and a nod. She frowned again as she looked at the paper targets. "I did learn breathing techniques, but apparently I'd forgotten them. Do you think that playing those video games where you go around shooting people or wildlife help in real shooting?" she asked, remembering her conversation with Lil and wondering if the video games the blonde wanted to play had any practical application.

"I don't think so. The guns don't have any recoil, I expect that they would get you in the bad habit of anticipating recoil when you switched back to the real deal." Bishop idly loaded another magazine for her while they spoke. "Just remember to only fire in the natural breath cycles, either when you've just finished inhaling or exhaling, so you don't fire mid breath and move your sight picture."

"Hmm. You're teaching Lil from the mansion too, right?" Adrienne asked, taking the pistol again. "She talked to me about playing those sorts of video games. I'll have to tell her they have no practical benefit to her shooting lessons, and will actually make her worse."

"Well, don't let that stop you from having fun." Bishop replied with a little laugh. "Sometimes unwinding can do as much for you as any amount of practice and training. Doesn't help to shoot well if you live on liquor and obsess about being a good fighter until you dwindle away." He held out another clip for her.