Log: Amanda and Jake and cookies

[x-courier.livejournal.com]

Takes place late this Wednesday afternoon.



The door was locked. Hm. Jake regarded it for a moment. He could probably pick the lock if he really wanted to, but by the way his fingertips tingled when he touched the door, he somehow didn't think that'd help much. This was a problem. He glanced down at the cookies ponderingly. Very... _flat_ those cookies. He studied the door. Then he grinned and knelt down.

A small noise by the door caught her attention. There was something coming under the door. Something flat, and round, and... cookie-shaped? Intrigued, she unwrapped herself and went over to the door. It was a cookie. As she watched, another followed it.

Jake pushed a third cookie under the door, hoping this was working. If it didn't, it was a waste of perfectly good cookies. And that would _really_ upset him.

The cookie vanished under the door a little more rapidly than his push would have done, as if someone had grabbed it from their side. After a moment, Amanda's hesitant voice asked: "Jake?" She sounded tired, her voice lacking its usual brashness.

Jake beamed at the door. Success! Oh yes, he was good. "Yeah, it's me. How'd you guess? Are you all right?"

"Who else would think of food?" Amanda sat on the floor, her back to the door, turning one of the cookie over in her fingers. "I'm okay, I s'pose. Better 'n some of the others, if the journal's're anythin' t' go by."

"They're sanctimonious fucks, pardon the language." Jake paused, looking at the plate of cookies. "Um. Do you want to let me in, by the way? I swear, these cookies taste a lot better sans dust."

"True," Amanda admitted reluctantly. "Dust ain't exactly that tasty. An' it's a shame t' fuck up perfectly good food." She hesitated still, and then made a decision. No matter how bad a start they'd gotten off to, she and Jake understood each other. Or at least the food part. And she could do with talking to someone who wasn't small and squeaky and scurried away when you said anything. Mice weren't known for their conversation. She reached up and unlocked the door and the spell holding it.

The weird tingly feeling was gone when he tired the door this time, and it opened easy as pie. Jake stepped in, carrying the plate with him. He stood looking down at Amanda for a moment. She looked bad. Her eyes looked far bigger in her face than Jake remembered them being. "Cookie man is here," he said finally. "Where do you want them?"

"Intravenously?" she joked weakly. She patted the floor beside her. "Here's good. Don't think I've got the energy t' get up again now I'm down here."

Jake eyed the floor suspiciously for a moment, then shrugged. He'd seen worse placed. He sat down, carefully keeping the plate of cookies far away from the dust bunnies. "When was the last time you ate?"

"Um. dunno. Breakfast. Yesterday. Before everythin'... before everythin' happened," said Amanda with her mouth full.

He gave her a horrified look. "_That_ long? Here, have some more."

She couldn't help smiling at his reaction. "I know yer gunna call me a heretic for this, but I wasn't hungry. Not till you showed up, any how." She swallowed and bit into another cookie - not one of Lorna's, but still good. "I felt so crap I just couldn't..."

Jake looked deeply uncomfortable. Feeding people, he could do, talking about thing was much, much harder. Especially since he wasn't sure Amanda would take to his 'they're all fuckers' opinion. "Because of the... uh. potion?"

"That. Some other stuff. I... don't want t' talk about it. Seems like all I do is think about how much I fucked up, an' how I'm never gunna get a chance like the one I had here again, an' I've screwed meself by actin' like a moron. Pete says I got another chance, but I don't know if I can do it, if I can fix this." She sighed and scrubbed her free hand through her hair. "Bollocks."

He just nodded, not really understanding, but understanding enough to realise that he'd never be able to find the right words to make her feel better, so he held out the plate hopefully again. "...Cookies are good for you. They make everything better."

She let out a shaky breath and grinned. "They do, do they? Well, can't argue with that," she said, and took another one off the plate.