Scott and Marie, backdated to January 17th

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Backdated to January 17th. Scott checks on a hermiting Marie, and gives her a gentle kick in the rump.


What with the shock of their four lost people returning alive, followed up so soon by Clarice and Callie's misadventures in Italy, Scott really hadn't had a chance to look in on Marie, something he was kicking himself for as he knocked on her door. Then again, knowing that he should have done this earlier allowed him to think it through and come prepared.

"Marie? Come on, open up." he called in his best imploring voice, trying not to smile. "I'll huff and I'll puff and blow your door down. And I brought Chinese?"

The door inched open at the mention of Chinese. "Kyle'd kill ya for the extra work if you broke in," she said, standing off to the side so Scott could walk in. Though she tried to make her tone light, the dark circles under her eyes told a different story.

"Kyle would try and kill me," Scott said, coming in. "Then I would assign him to coms for the rest of his natural life. I don't play fair." He raised the bags, trying to keep the concern in his expression to a minimum. "I brought wonton soup?"

"If you have egg rolls too you can have a seat," Marie said, going in to the kitchen to grab napkins and plates. "Anyways, figured you'd be showing up here at some point, may as well let you see Ah'm still alive and all. And don't worry, Ah've been eating too."

"This is good," Scott said, sitting down and starting to unpack the bag on the coffee table. He had, of course, gotten a double order of eggrolls. "Still. I figured if I brought Chinese, you could have the leftovers and not have to worry about cooking anything for lunch tomorrow. Since you've been a little scarce on the ground lately."

"Just haven't been feeling very social. Ah've still been running all my classes. Just not much else," she said, reaching out to take an eggroll. "And thanks. Chinese leftovers are always a good thing."

"Understandable." Scott opened one of the containers of wonton soup. "I suppose I'm wondering how you are, beyond the 'functional'." The corner of his mouth tugged upwards almost sadly. "Although functional is a good thing."

"Ah thought functional was the gold standard," Marie said with a wry smile. After quietly nibbling at the food for a moment, she set the egg roll on her plate. "Ah'm supposed to go see him. Maybe," she said, her voice quiet.

"I'd wondered." Scott dug in the back looking for one of the plastic spoons. His expression was composed in the sort of determined way that suggested he was having some difficulty keeping it so. "It can be hard, though. When the person you care about is... disconnected from who they are. Or were."

"Disconnected. That's one way to put it," Marie said, setting her plate down on the coffee table. "Ah just...Ah don't know if Ah knew where he was at before all this. And now...well, he needs time and space to get his head on straight. Ah get that, or at least part of me does. But Ah'm not used to being on this side of the fence."

"It sucks," Scott said. "Mind you, when Jean had to do that, I was kind of busy doing it myself so I didn't have the disadvantage of having to sit on my hands and wait."

"Yeah," Marie said with a sigh. "And the whole thing is, Ah'm more used to being the one to run off and get sorted out than being the one left waiting at home. Ah kinda feel guilty for all the times Ah've done it before."

Scott made a face - not at the soup, which was still warm and quite good. "Marie, no. There's no reason to feel that way."

"And why not?" she asked, twirling her white lock of hair around her finger. "Though that's not really the point here either. It's just...Ah don't know what to do really."

"You're sort of in stasis right now, when it comes to Garrison. My suggestion would be to try and move forward in the areas that don't touch on him." Scott shrugged, but the look in his eye was sympathetic. "You have things you can be doing. People to help fill up the waiting period."

"What people?" Marie asked. "Ah've kinda taken on the loner persona since Ah got back from Canada. Things just don't feel the same as they did before. Ah mean, like Ah said, Ah do my work. But my semester off from school is turning into a year off. Maybe that was a mistake, Ah dunno, but Ah just didn't think Ah could handle it."

"You've taken on the loner persona - that doesn't mean you have to keep it," Scott pointed out. "And if things don't feel the same... well, welcome to life after upheaval, again. It's work to reestablish those connections, but I think you know it's worth it." He grimaced a little. "Less to be done about school right now, but the chance to fix that will come, given a little more time... you could be thinking about summer courses already."

"Yeah," Marie said. "But knowing and doing are different things. It's just hard to get the ball rolling again once it stops."

"This is my completely unsympathetic face," Scott said, although his tone was gentle enough to put the lie to his words. "If there's one thing you don't want to do, Marie, it's sitting around and just waiting. Trust me. Activity is always better."

"Sounds like a Danger Room challenge," Marie said, the closest thing all evening to a smile finally crossing her face. "Ah heard there's a couple new scenarios and Ah can't remember the last time Ah kicked your butt in there."

"Tough talk from the rusty," Scott said peacefully.