xp_logs | Garrison and Adrienne- odd welcome home

x-adrienne.livejournal.com posting in

Garrison returns to his suite to find it occupied.

The horrible Canadian movie was almost over. Thank God she'd dozed off through most of it. Who made movies about a sport that consisted of chucking a rock down a sheet of ice and smacking the ice with a broom? Seriously? Only a Canadian. But despite the fact that the movie was awful, Adrienne was beginning to feel better. The nap had helped. Being here helped. However, she knew she had to stop doing this. The psychometrist hated the fact that she'd now come into Garrison Kane's suite three times in an attempt to steady herself during personal trial. The first was after he'd been kidnapped- she'd been with Morgan the entire first weekend but by the next weekend she'd wanted to prove that she was fine and hadn't wanted to go to Morgan again, feeling like she was burdening the blue woman enough already with her inability to cope with what she'd seen. So instead, she'd read Garrison's keypad to get into his room and had gone to sleep on his couch. His room, where she and Morgan and Garrison had hung out many times, reminded her of their friendship, of strength and comfort and humour. Because it was Kane's room and he'd just gone missing, there was also pain to be felt from being there, but the pain wasn't any more acute in his room than it was anywhere else she'd been during the time when he'd first gone missing.

She hadn't come back to the room again for a while, too embarrassed that she'd gone in in the first place to contemplate going back. It seemed like weakness, that she couldn't handle things by doing her usual everyday routines. And then had come her night with Manuel, and the aftermath of that. When Morgan had refused to speak with her over Adrienne's mishandling of the situation, Adrienne had gone to the Canadian's room again. He'd come home and had left again by that time, and she'd encouraged it, but with Morgan's anger towards her Adrienne had missed Garrison a great deal, longing to talk to him about it but unwilling to violate his privacy by trying to contact him. Being in his room was the next best thing.

And now, Morgan was at a meeting for a job, and Adrienne had been feeling particularly low. The business rival who had led to the NYPD reopening Steven's murder investigation was making noises again, this time about taxes, all accusations completely untrue but wearying nonetheless. The weather was making travel into the city difficult. Economic downturn was hitting the company and she had to make a decision on whether to continue absorbing the hits, or depleting her staff, neither of which appealed particularly much. Her personal finances weren't much better- the decision on whether or not to sell her Boston home was another unpleasant thought that was needling her. So she'd come to Garrison's to get away from those things. She thought of going to Morgan, but the blue woman needed to conduct her business without Adrienne acting like a child who needed to be coddled at the first sign of unhappiness. She would talk to Morgan later, but for right now Garrison's room was comfort enough.

Realizing that she wasn't quite steady enough to face the outside world just yet, Adrienne rolled over on the couch and tucked the blanket she'd found more securely in around herself, trying to focus on the terrible movie again. The sound of the door opening had her sitting upright guiltily, staring at the sound like a deer caught in headlights.

Garrison opened the door, yawning widely. It had been an equally long series of connecting flights. He supposed he could have asked Clarice to teleport him, but since he'd left like a thief in the night, it seemed only fair that he come back in the same fashion. He paused as he opened the door, hearing the television on inside the room. It sounded a little like 'Men With Brooms', one of Mac Hudson's favourite films.

He stepped inside, and stopped as he saw Adrienne lying there on the couch.

Colour draining from her face when she turned to see him, Adrienne flung off the blanket and got to her feet. "Shit. Shit, shit shit." He'd actually come home while she'd been curled up on the man's couch? It was the sort of thing that happened in movies. She wanted the floor to swallow her up, but that didn't seem to be happening so instead she grabbed her shoes from the floor and lurched towards the door, well aware that she would have to pass him before she could make an exit. "I-I'm sorry," she stammered, "I was just... shit." She tried to pass him, arms coming up to shield herself instinctively as if expecting to be struck on the way past.

"Whoa, whoa. I'm still on Polynesian time here, and I think I left my brain on the runaway during my transfer at O'Hare. No confusing fleeing until I've at least had a cup of coffee." Garrison said, putting up his hands with the palms facing Adrienne, the international 'hang on a sec' motion. He was still in the doorway, with his bags beside him, and the only way Adrienne was going to be able to slip past was by shoving him to one side and stepping over his luggage.

He wasn't moving to let her go, but he didn't sound angry. But really, her rational mind argued, did you think he would be? It's Garrison. "I should go," she said in respone to his gesture for her to wait. Her hands came down to her sides, at least. "I-I wasn't touching anything or stealing anything," she assured him. "But I should go." She was almost pleading as she said it, since the floor wasn't swallowing her up. She wanted the embarrassment to end- the fact that he'd found her here, hanging out in his room to be close to him by proxy, was so silly she wanted to be anywhere else right now. "Welcome home. Now please can I go?"

"Well, you can, but really, why?" Kane stepped aside, taken aback by her vehemence. "I was thinking of saying hello tomorrow, but, well, if you want to leave, I won't stop you."

"I don't- I-I want to say hello," she stammered, eyes focused on the exit that was now clear in front of her, "but I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have been here at all, I just-" she pushed hair out of her face, torn between feeling like she should explain why she was here and feeling like she would rather rip her eyes out with her fingernails before admitting why she was here... "I broke into your place," she said suddenly, staring at him in confusion, "are you telling me I can stay? Instead of asking me to leave?" It didn't really make sense to Adrienne.

"Well, unless you had some cunning plan to steal my coffee maker and Tragically Hip CDs, you can stay." Garrison tossed his his bags into the room, and stepped past her to drop his personal effects on his desk. Before he'd left for Australia, he'd packed up most of his things, and squared the room away as he'd left. It once again looked more like a hotel room, save for a few tidy stacks of DVDs, CDs, and books arranged around the room, and his closet and drawers full of clothes. "Speaking of, do you want some coffee?"

"As tragic as I'm sure your hips are, I don't have any cunning plans to steal them," Adrienne teased, relaxing a little. "I... think I'm jumpy enough without adding coffee to my system," she pointed out with a slight smile. She shivered a little, the adrenalin-fueled fear she'd been experiencing since the door had opened wearing off and leaving her chilled. "But if you're sure about me staying, I wouldn't mind some tea. Before I ask you how your trip was, aren't you going to ask me why I'm here?" Not that she wanted to tell him, but the fact that he seemed so casual about finding her here was grating her.

"I figured you'd tell me when you were ready." Kane said, softly. He had a possible idea what it might be, but he knew how closely Adrienne guarded her feelings and her privacy. He didn't want to put her on the spot, unless she wanted to tell him herself.

"You did?" Why were the men here all so damned polite and respectful? It was confusing. She'd broken into his room and here he was respecting her privacy? Why couldn't he be what she expected? It would save her a lot of turmoil, that was for sure. "Oh. Okay," was all she could think of to say to him in response. She went into the kitchenette and filled the teapot, then the coffee pot. "So how was the trip?" she asked, trying to sound casual. "Successful soul-searching... saga?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I've got a lot to think about. And re-assess." Garrison replied, hanging up his coat. "What about you? Did anything happen while I was fleeing from the world?" He wandered into the kitchenette with her, leaning against the counter and watching her fiddle with the drinks.

Adrienne snorted derisively. "You weren't fleeing," she muttered, measuring out coffee from a canister. "You had to take some time to figure some things out. And you thought the best place to do that would be some sort of warm, tropical destination, on a boat. With the weather around here, who could blame you?" she grinned, but quickly turned serious again. "Morgan thinks you should have stayed here with your friends and let th-us, let us help you." They were friends. Adrienne had never really had friends so including herself when she spoke of group of them was still very awkward. "I'm sure she told you that. I don't know... I thought she was wrong, and that being alone was best, and so I thought that's what you should do, but..." Now, after what had happened with Morgan over the Manuel episode, she wasn't entirely sure. "I thought maybe you should just know that if you did decide to do the whole 'lean on people' thing she's such a fan of, you could do that. With me, I mean. I mean, I'm not very good at... shit." Stupid Morgan and her confusing theories about human interaction. "You should do what you want, and I know that, and Morgan knows that, and that's basically all that happened for me while you were gone. I came to the realization that maybe people don't have to be alone if they don't want to be. And if you want help, I want to help you."

Kane leaned in, and kissed her on the cheek. "I know, Adrienne. At least, I've got a better idea of that now. I think the thing I was running away from wasn't myself, but having to face my own assumptions about things. I guess what facing my dad did was strip away some of those things that I thought I'd based myself on. All those years, what I thought about him, and how I was so determined not to be anything like him. Turns out that I am a lot like my father, and part of it is because I didn't really know who he actually was before now. I don't know, I'm still trying to sort it all out, but I think I can at least see where I need to go."

"I'm glad for that," Adrienne replied, blushing at the kiss and hating herself for it. "When you say where you need to go, do you mean physically, or spiritually? Because I don't know if Morgan will be very happy if you leave again so soon. I don't think I'd be very happy either," she pointed out, picking a teabag out of another canister and filling a cup she'd retrieved from a cupboard, placing a second cup by the coffeemaker. "Did you hear the Jays nearly picked up Giambi?"

"More mentally. Just sorting things out in my head, figuring out exactly who Garrison Kane is, and clearing out some of the baggage I've been toting around for too many years. That doesn't need me to run away any more, or try and do it all on my own. I'm not planning on leaving anytime soon." He said, picking up the slight tone in her voice. Obviously he was going to have to talk to Morgan, and soon. "As for Giambi, he was always going to the A's. I still think they should find a way to go after Manny, just for the sheer joy of your Bosox having to face him and the Doc at the same time some day in Fenway. Obviously though, I'm a bad person." He grinned, his teeth very white against his tanned skin and brown beard.

"You're an evil person," Adrienne corrected, waiting for the coffee to finish perking and filling a cup, then handing the cup to him before throwing her teabag into the trash and taking a sip out of her own cup. It wasn't lost on Adrienne that she'd come into his home, been waiting for him when he came back from a trip, and had made him coffee, like some sort of housewife. But she tried to push that thought out of her head, because it was too confusing. "The Jays don't want Manny. I don't think anyone in the American League wants Manny. Because he's a bastard. I'm glad your mental baggage is finally getting chucked out to Goodwill, or wherever," she said, smiling up at him. "So if you're not leaving any time soon, does that mean you have no plans to go down to Florida to watch spring training?"

"Not currently, although I might be persuaded by a lady with pretty eyes. We'll have to see once it starts." Garrison grinned, sipping from his cup. Ah, Tim Horton's. He'd missed his coffee keenly, and made a note to pick up another can before this one wore out. He had a laundry list of things he needed to do, but for now, he decided to put them off until the end of the weekend.

She gave a snort at the 'lady' comment. "If you mean me, what makes you think I was persuading you to go? If you came, you'd drag me to Dunedin to watch your stupid Jays. And what do you mean, once it starts? You call yourself a fan and you won't even know if you're going to Florida until it starts?"

"You know, that was a compliment you just ran right over." Garrison grinned at her. "I mean, seriously, it's lying there twitching, nothing but crow's food now. Ah, the cruelty of Mother Nature."

"It's good to have you back, Kane," Adrienne grinned back, her low spirits extinguished by the familiar humour and comfort Kane displayed just by being himself. She sipped her tea and relaxed against the counter. "Wanna come to Florida with me for Spring Training during the March break?"

"I could be persuaded."