Log: Lil and Vikks

[x-diamondlil.livejournal.com]

The reign of terror begins.


Lillian Crawley-Jeffries was a woman of many great and varied strengths.

Patience was not one of them.

Laying sprawled on her couch with eyes glued to a nearby clock and forgotten magazines scattered on the nearby floor, she watched the minute hand tick away. Where was she? Surely, she would have heard something from the girl by now, whether it be because she'd arrived or was going to be late. Unless... The blonde picked up her cell phone then scowled at it when the display told her there were no messages.

"Where the fuck is she?" Lil wondered out loud with a growl, dropping the phone back to her stomach.

Almost on cue, there was a rustle at the doorway, and an envelope was pushed under the door. Inside was a note made from cut out bits of magazines that said 'WE HAVE YOUR FRIEND HOSTAGE. BRING ALL YOUR ALCOHOL TO THE POOL OR WE WILL EXECUTE HER'. Many of the letters looked suspiciously like they'd been cut from a generic inflight magazine, in fact.

The blonde's head lifted at the noise and she rolled off the couch then hurried to the door, grabbing for the envelope. What she found inside caused her confused frown to transform into a radiant smile and with an excited laugh, Lil tore at the knob, almost yanking it out of the wood in her hurry to open the door.

The hallway was empty, except for a small box in the middle of the floor. Opening it, inside was a gummy ear from a novelty candy store, and a second smaller note. 'THIS IS A WARNING. YOU WILL COOPERATE'.

"Oh, you tricky, little bitch," Lil cackled. A quick duck into the kitchenette, she grabbed a bottle of whiskey and another of tequila before collecting the box and heading to the pool, nibbling on the candy as she went.

The indoor pool was surrounded by large windows, and on a sunny day like today, it was as comfortably warm as a day at the beach. Lying back in a chaise lounge, sunglasses on and sunning herself was Victoria Kane. She pretended not to notice Lil come in, but the raised eyebrows on her approach gave her away.

"Negotiating with terrorists? You know that always leads to future demands."

Unable to keep herself from grinning like a stupid schoolgirl, Lil forced her steps to stay casual and measured as she approached her friend's side. "That's the thanks I get for being worried some freak was gonna kill the closest thing I got to a best friend? Well, fuck. Guess I'll just have to bring these bottles back to my room if they're only gonna go to waste."

"Nope. If you do, it means I have to go drinking with my brother instead of you." Vikks lifted her sunglasses up on to her forehead and grinned at Lil. "You're looking good, Lil. Who have you been causing trouble with?"

"No one nearly as fun as you." With that, the blonde put aside the alcohol and pounced on her friend, making the girliest noise she'd ever made - since her bachelorette party at least - as she encompassed the other woman in a great hug. "I missed you, you fucking bitch," Lil laughed.

"So it's true. You've caught the gay down here." Vikks said once they disentangled. The shot was said with a smile, their banter as comfortable as breathing. "Shit, this is quite the place, eh? I mean, seriously, no rent, no bills, a damn mansion and a parade of hot guys? I wonder how I get a gig down here. Does your med lab need an intern or something?"

Lil returned the shot with one of her own to Vikks' shoulder. "Shuddup. I did not catch the gay or the bisexual cravings," she informed her, settling herself in a nearby chair and opening the two bottles. The whiskey she kept for herself while the tequila she passed on. "Sure you could ask. Gar could probably get you in; he helped get me set up at a bar near here. Nothing like the clubs but it's nice. Good people, good tips. Enough to keep me comfortable and pay for the new arrival that's on its way," the taller girl added with a tease and impish glint in her eyes.

"You finally sprung to buy that boat driver from the resort in Trinidad a plane ticket? Good for you. I thought it was unhealthy the way you kept trying to lick the dock when he'd walk past, and watching you hump doorknobs in frustration nearly got us kicked out on the third day." Vikk's ascorbic response was typical, as she cracked open the tequila and reached for a plastic cup. "Fuck this. I'll be classy at home." She said, upending a few ounces into it.

"Classy? Sweetie, the only class you've got are those ones you attend to fill that big head of yours with ways to cut into people's brains. It's much easier just to crack open their skulls my way." Not reaching for a cup herself, Lil preferred to take her hits straight from the bottle. "Sadly, no boat driver. Couldn't track him down. Almost as if he didn't want to be some Amazon's lovetoy, you know? Anyway, I'm finally getting myself a bike. Harley Softail custom."

"Didn't the guys in high school also call you 'Soft Tail'?" Vikks slammed back a gulp, winced, and refilled the cup. "And I'm still deciding between neurology and immunology. There's the issue of loving people and hating patients, so dealing with them in terms of small sterile samples is appealing. I'm tempted to change my dating habits to reflect that."

Lil snorted, shaking her head so the long, blonde hair danced over her shoulders. "Guys knew better than to call me any shitty nicknames. 'Cept your brother. Beaver Boy still won't give up Brickhouse, the ass." She rolled her eyes and took another large swig, wiping away the excess with the back of her palm. "You got yourself into problems lately to drive you towards 'sterile' samples, Sweetie?"

"Just the usual group of losers who don't understand that 'I'm not interested in ever seeing you again' isn't a cunning way to hint I'm still available for sex. Besides, class is just utter hell this year. I'm going to have to be good if I'm going to make it through the next year." Vikks said, although they both knew it was the normal good natured bitching. Victoria Kane had never finished lower than the top five percent in her class, and wasn't about to start. "What about you, Lil? What the fuck is going on? Garrison said you were dating a cop down here? The fuck's up with that?"

Another long draw of whiskey and the taller woman dropped her head onto the back of her chair. "Ugh. Not dating him. Not anymore, at least. Just in a bad place after Maddy and all. You know how I am, fuck." Lil let out a frustrated growl as she tried to get her thoughts together. "Cop is gorgeous. All muscle; taller than me. Good head and heart and shit, his hands are unfuckingbelievable... But I didn't do anything stupid with him. Madison's still my one and only," she confessed with a frown and bitter laugh; green eyes staring blindly into the all-but-full bottle in her grasp. "Broke up after I went crazy on Madison and my anniversary 'cause I realized I ain't ready to give up." One shoulder rose and fell absently. "I'm talking to Maddy though. Well, kinda. Emailing and texting."

"You need to get your shit together, my girl." Vikks said over the top of her glass, pointing with her index finger for emphasis. "You should come home for a visit. If Maddy keeps being a dick, end it. If he's trying, figure out how to make you both happy. Otherwise, you're either going to explode at some point, or you're going to do something dumb, and then I'm going to be the one stuck with you for six months of sobbing over the phone. Or worse, you're going to end up fucking my brother, and then I'll have to listen to him moralize for weeks about it."

The sip she'd taken came spraying back out at Vikks' final conclusion. "I am not going to fuck your brother," Lil said as slowly and seriously as possible. "Are you trying to choke me? Fuck, Vikks! I am not going to fuck Gar but I am probably going to explode. Like you said, parade of hot men and me with a wedding ring that might as well be fucking herpes." She groaned again a took a longer draw, daring the brunette with her eyes to say something to make her spit it out again. "Maddy is trying. We both are. That's what the emails and texts are. We're... taking it slow." 'Slow' had never been a term they could have applied to their relationship before - physical, yes; dysfunctional, certainly! - but both had agreed maybe that had been one of the problems with their relationship.

"Slow? Meh." Vikks shook her head. "Yeah, so you two were retarded for each other. What's wrong with that? Maddy's a squirrelly little guy, you're six foot twelve, and both of you were happiest when you were this close to getting caught blowing him in the lunchroom. The problems started when you decided you both needed to be all adult and have individual goals and things. He's obsessed with the robot? Shove a cot in the lab, underhand the other staff out and make him nail you every time he wants a break. You want to make Alpha? I can explain some of the shit he can do to you while on any number of different weight machines. I dated a personal trainer eight months ago. Believe me on this."

"I know all about sex on machines. We lost two ellipticals that way," Lil groaned, dropping her face into one hand then pulling the bottle closer for a sip meant to drown the confusion she was falling into. "Problems started when we quit Beta. Tried to play house and we both had our heads stuck back at the Program... only more than just his head followed him." Lil had kept her end of the deal; playing the doting wife for over two years while her husband had kept a robot on the side. "This is what's best right now: me here and him there doing our things separately no matter how much I wanna go back there and fuck his brains out. And Maddy's not squirrelly! He's over six foot," she added, swatting Vikks' arm again.

"Bullshit. You have nerdlust. And that's cool, because you and Maddy do crazy things to each other." Vikks swatted the hand away. "Stop trying to be something you're not, bitch. Whatever you want, take it. If he's not going to work with you, move the fuck on. I swear, you being emo is just not something I'm ready to deal with, eh."

"I am not being emo," the blonde insisted, looking slightly wounded for the first time since their conversation had begun. "I love him; am crazy about him and I'm not ready to throw seven years away yet." Lil blew a tough of hair from her eyes and settled herself with another sip of whiskey. "And I am taking what I want. I'm here, aren't I? Working to make Alpha. Have a job and a motorcycle. Dated the cop for a bit. Oh, did Gar tell you who else is haunting the place? Old Man Logan's got his handsful tossing me around the mats again," she confessed, all traces of any sadness lost in the impish twinkle in her eye.

"When I said take what you want, I didn't mean your teenaged crush, hon." Vikks knocked back the rest of her drink. There was something about Logan that just didn't seem right to her, although half of the Alpha Flight people were legitimately crazy. "I still think you should just come home and enjoy making Maddy wait up for you when you're away being amazon superhero with Alpha Flight, but you gotta do what you think is best. Now, let's go get a proper drink, and you can introduce me to this gorgeous cop with the amazing hands that you let drop, eh?"

Unfolding herself out of the chair, Lil kept a hold of her bottle with one hand and extended the other out for Vikks to take. "Can't make Maddy wait if he's trying out for the team, too," she pointed out with a smile on her lips that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I can take you to Harry's if you want or sign out a car and we can hit the city but I ain't introducing you to the cop because I don't want you getting your slobber all over him. Plenty of men elsewhere to ogle for us, including ones who will let us shove our tongues down their throats."

"Taking it slow, huh?" Vikks grabbed the bottle and tossed her towel over her shoulder. "As you very well know, Lillian," She enunciated her name carefully. "no one ever lets me. I grant them the experience of a lifetime. I'm kind of like Jesus, if he was hot and female."

"And Canadian," she finished for her friend with a chuckle. "Let's go make out with studs and take pictures to plaster all over your brother's walls, Victoria. It'll save us from having to get him an actual gift."

"Oh, I got him a gift. And a few for his friends too." She grinned wickedly. "You've never seen pictures of him in junior high, with his early nineties poofy hair. Guaranteed to end chances for sex with any woman who sees them. That, my dear, is the real gift that keeps on giving."