Garrison and Adrienne - Toronto versus Boston

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Adrienne attempts to apologize to Garrison for blaming him for what happened with Jake at the Brownstone, but her attempt at patching things up goes quite awry.

((ooc: posted early due to unavailability of poster at scheduled posting time- silly timezones.))


Having to take care of some business at the office was a cunning cover story to get out of chaperoning prom, but Adrienne hoped that no one would come looking for her since she'd never really intended to be working tonight. Her Red Sox were playing Garrison's Jays and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to attempt to patch things up with him. Their friendly rivalry when it came to baseball would make her life a lot easier for Garrison to accept her apology and for them both to move past what had happened and go back to being... whatever it was they were.

The television was showing a commercial when the brunette walked into Harry's, but Adrienne knew when she saw Garrison in his usual booth that the game would be on. "What's the score?" she asked with a smile, hoping she could work up to her apology and do it later. Or that he would be over things now and she wouldn't have to apologize at all. She sat down across from him without an invitation.

"Bottom of the first. Still scoreless." Kane said, not as warmly as he'd used to. Obviously, the Canadian was a little guarded at the moment, his eyes flickering between the television and her face, in direct contrast to his normally firm relaxed gaze.

Adrienne was careful to keep her features steady as she took in his slightly frigid answer and demeanor. Clearly he wasn't over what had happened. Which meant she would have to apologize after all. Damnit. "Look, I don't know if maybe you had a bad day or something, but if you're acting like that stick up your ass is in there deeper than usual because of what happened between us at the Brownstone, I'm sorry about that."

"Stick up my ass? If this is apologizing, you suck at it." Kane said flatly, taking a sip from his beer as he watched Ellsbury stand in against Janssen. He watched the screen purposefully, unable to stop the next words from coming. "Besides, you seem to be the one that can't handle getting things stuck up her, so why don't we leave it at that."


The brunette's mouth opened to respond, but she couldn't seem to form words out of the shock that had struck her. Garrison's comment felt almost like a physical blow. Adrienne wouldn't ever have thought Garrison Kane could be cruel. He really was just like everyone else, it seemed. Well, in a way, that was comforting, though she refused to admit how much it hurt to figure out that Garrison had that in him. "Good thing I don't have a beer or it would be going over your head right now," she replied after she'd swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, trying to be nonchalant and not betray her surprise at his meanness.


"Yeah, dumping shit on me seems to be a skill you've picked up over the last few months. Anything else you particularly want to blame me for? Duncan cramping your style while you're chiseling for favours at the Hellfire Club? How about for not apologizing for not making things easy and remaining dead?" He forced himself to let go of the pint glass, well aware that it was on the verge of shattering in his hands. "Or are we going to stick with me ruining your new sex life with whoever you picked up this week?"


Flinching, Adrienne sank back into her seat and tried to make herself very small, though she managed to keep her hands from shaking. This conversation seemed far too familiar, and that terrified her. "I don't wish you were dead," she said in a soft, placating tone very unlike her normal one. "And I'm not blaming you for my association with Duncan- I'm happy to work with him, really. And I'm not sleeping with anyone." She ordered herself to stop cowering, stop soothing him when he was saying unreasonable things, stop giving him power over her. Part of her argued that this was Kane, that she could speak her mind with him and expect him to respond rationally, with anger, certainly, but without physical violence. But this new, darker side to him was so unexpected that it was hard for Adrienne to anticipate now just what exactly he was capable of.


"I guess that means I'm safe from getting ambushed and screamed out for at least a week before someone else shows up. Fantastic. I'll throw a party. Big one. Snacks and everything." His gaze slipped back to the television. It was easier to watch that than her, using the game as a buffer to avoid eye contact. There was a curveball strike on the outside corner. That he at least understood.


Feeling a little of her confidence returning when Kane focused on watching baseball, Adrienne straightened a little. "I hope you're calling me a whore only to make yourself feel better, and not to try and make me feel worse. Because if you're trying to make me feel worse, you don't have to bother. I got immune to being called a whore a long time ago. You get over it quick when it's accompanied by knocks to the head. If you're throwing a party why don't you throw in some pinatas as well, and streamers? You can get everyone I've ever said something stupid to to come. Might include everyone at the mansion. I'm trying to apologize, and yes I suck at it but you could at least stop pouting like a child and talk to me rationally about this," she muttered. "With these implications about me being a whore, you almost sound as if you're pissed off that I slept with Jake, and I don't understand that at all, considering what you'd been doing at the exact same time," she reminded him coolly.


"No, I'm pissed off that you decided to scream at me about something you couldn't handle. I couldn't care less who you sleep with, except when it suddenly becomes all my fault because something goes wrong. I'm not your emotional punching bag, Adrienne, just because I happen to be the one guy who isn't going to hit you in response to your crap." Kane knocked back a third of his pint in one long swallow. "I haven't done anything wrong, and I'm tired of this getting approached like I have. Whatever the hell you want to do, just leave me out of it. But don't think I'm going to put up with your shit with a big smile because you can't hack taking responsibility for your own decisions."


Adrienne rolled her eyes and tried to decide where to start first. "If I didn't want to take responsibility, I wouldn't be here, trying to apologize," she pointed out. "I know you haven't done anything wrong. I reacted badly, and that feels like the hundredth time I've said that on the subject, by the way. I fucked it up, and I have responsibility for that. I couldn't handle it." She remembered what Lil had explained to her, about Garrison being hurt that Adrienne had accused him of messing her up, when the reason Adrienne had been upset- over him being attacked- had never been his fault in the first place.


"It wasn't right for me to blame my reaction on you." She wasn't capable of going so far as to admit that the reason she'd been so damned upset in the first place was because it tore her apart having to watch him get hurt through her memories, that the images cut into her painfully every time she relived them. "I'm sorry, alright? And I think some other men at the mansion might take offense to you calling yourself the one guy who won't hit me," she added, smirking in attempt to be light, though she was slightly irked. He seemed to be implying that she deserved to be hit for her 'crap'; Adrienne hoped that wasn't what he was trying to say, but if that were the case, she would have no qualms about walking away from him for good.



"Uh-huh." Kane kept his gaze glued to the television screen, filing away her words, but none of them actually touching him. It was as if a wall had slammed down between the two of them, and breaching it wasn't a matter of apology, but a seemingly unlikely prospect. "Apology accepted. Whatever. Doesn't matter in the long run in any case. I'll be back in Canada soon enough."


Frowning at the television, Adrienne kept her gaze away from Garrison's. It was a surprise to learn that he was going back to Canada- and it sounded permanent, since he'd told her that her apology didn't matter in the long run. But Adrienne was used to people leaving once they came into her life. No one stayed, which was why she chose to keep people at arm's length as often as possible. Being alone didn't hurt as badly if you didn't let anybody get close. "You've gotten good at leaving the country when things aren't going perfectly for you," she pointed out in a quiet monotone. "Good luck with that. At least we agree that our acquaintance doesn't matter."


"Yeah, you can make it all about you. I actually have duties to perform. An oath to uphold." Kane said, a nasty edge to his voice. "Enjoy begging from scraps from your sister at the Hellfire Club. I'm sure I'll see all your fashions at the local Gap. Hope you make a billion dollars."


Laughing, Adrienne rose from the booth. "A billion? Can you even hear yourself right now? You sound like a child. I should go before your intelligence dissolves any further into adolescence and you start telling me I have cooties." She couldn't face him anymore, couldn't stand by to see the man she thought so rational and caring and... good, one of the few men she admired and trusted, be so petty and mean. And she had to flee before he could see that she was blinking back tears.

Comments

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Ouch. That was hard to read.