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xp_logsThings come to a boil when Garrison and Adrienne encounter each other at Harry's and neither can tiptoe around the other anymore.
Adrienne, 2. Garrison, 0. Awkwardness, 1. Frustration, 442. Anger, 174. Understanding, -6.
Harry's was rocking. Johnny Devil had the band on fire, and Kane switched his attention from them and the televisions where the Jays were finishing up dueling with the Angels. More people were watching the potentially late season swoon of the Red Sox, and he considered buying them drinks. Kenny's base picked out the opening to 'New Orleans is Sinking' and he leaned back, enjoying the pub washing over him.
Adrienne hummed along with the music from the end of the bar where she sat nursing a beer- the same beer she'd been drinking all night, since she was a little strapped for cash at the moment- and looking through sheafs of photos. Warren had asked her to help with a little task for the PI agency, which involved trying to discover the identity of an employee who was stealing goods from the warehouse building of an engineering supply company. He'd been staking the place out trying to catch someone in the act, but hadn't had any luck so far. So Adrienne had read the building and was now looking through photographs from the company's picnic and Christmas parties, along with drivers licence photographs the company had provided, trying to figure out who she had seen in her reading so she could help Warren discern a pattern for the thefts and make a positive identification the next time it happened.
She looked up at one of the television screens when she heard the crack of a bat and spotted Garrison across the room. For a moment she thought of looking quickly away and pretending she hadn't seen him, but the idea of it curdled her stomach, and instead she gave him a polite little finger wave and went back to her photos.
And here she was again. It was like having a passive aggressive shadow, Kane thought darkly. Over fifty televisions of various sizes and types in the mansion, and she just had to come to his place to see the game. He was almost tempted to ask Harry to cut her off, just to get her out of here.
Johnny finished his number and Adrienne cheered emphatically. The musician grinned at her and dedicated his next number, The Who's <i>The Seeker,</i> to her, just as he'd done after the Apocalypse attack on New York. She held up her nearly-empty glass at him in salute, laughing.
Even Johnny was getting into it. It was getting old and it had to stop. Kane waited for the band to take their break before walking over to the other side of the bar, setting his drink down deliberately next to her. "This isn't funny any more, Adrienne."
"What's not funny?" Adrienne asked, honest confusion on her face.
"There is an entire mansion to avoid each other in, and somehow, every time I turn around, you just happen to be there." He could feel the anger building. "Just because you've decided you're sorry doesn't mean that everything gets fixed, and the more you keep pushing me-"
"-Excuse me," Adrienne interrupted with a laugh of disbelief, "pushing you? Pushing you to what purpose, exactly? Following you around like a puppy trying to fix things because I just can't bear to be apart from you, so I'm pushing you to fix everything and forgive me and take me back?" She held back the laugh this time, but only barely. "What the fuck kind of deluded world have you been inhabiting, exactly?" The incident with him punching the porch railing flashed in her mind and Adrienne's desire to tiptoe around Garrison finally evaporated. "I'm not here in this pub for you!"
Kane realized his mouth was open, and he snapped it shut angrily. "You didn't even think about anyone here until the sky caved in, and then you just show up like nothing has happened! So don't give me this line that you-"
"-Wait, I'm sorry, are you a fucking mindreader now?" Adrienne shot back, fighting to keep her voice below a shout. "Except no, that's not right, if you were a mindreader, you'd realize how fucking wrong you are about me so obviously you have absolutely not the slightest fucking clue what the fuck I was thinking about. I 'didn't think about anyone here?' Fuck that! In what fucking deluded world do you have the right to tell me what the fuck I was thinking?"
"Don't you try and shove this back on me." Kane said, pointing at her. "I'm not the one that abandoned everyone without so much as a phone call. Until everything went to hell. Oh, and then you're everyone's best friend and star teacher again. So that's-"
"-Okay, first of all, I'm not shoving anything back on you, I'm just trying to get something through that thick fucking skull of yours. And secondly, Christ, are you still singing that song?!" she asked, exasperated. "Abandoned everyone? Jesus, that's getting old. You say abandoned, I say I did what I was told to do to by fucking dangerous assholes to keep everyone I feel responsible for safe. And guess what? I can't change what I did now. And if you can't accept the decisions I made, I can't keep making that my problem." She punctuated this with a shrug.
"See, now you're twisting it. You know that you-"
"-I'm not twisting shit!" she retorted, finding this whole thing just incredulous now. Seriously, was he living on another fucking planet? Where was he getting this shit from? "I'm out of your life, which is what you seem to want! I'm not pushing you! I am sitting here quietly- well, not so quietly now- doing research, drinking the one beer in my weekly budget, watching my Sox get their asses kicked again. If you have a problem with me being back and acting like everyone's best friend and star teacher, it's your problem, not mine. This is my life. I know you don't give a shit about what I had to go through to get back here, but I fought for this. Now I'm going to enjoy it. So... just fucking deal, Slick."
Kane stood there for a long moment, mouth agape. Finally, he shook his head and stalked off, throwing down a few bills to cover his drinks and walking out the door, leaving the half finished pint behind.
"Thanks for not breaking anything this time!" she called out in a singsong voice as he took off. Staring at his half-finished pint, Adrienne shrugged and picked it up, taking a long swallow out of it. Hey, free beer was free beer, especially when one was on a budget!
Adrienne, 2. Garrison, 0. Awkwardness, 1. Frustration, 442. Anger, 174. Understanding, -6.
Harry's was rocking. Johnny Devil had the band on fire, and Kane switched his attention from them and the televisions where the Jays were finishing up dueling with the Angels. More people were watching the potentially late season swoon of the Red Sox, and he considered buying them drinks. Kenny's base picked out the opening to 'New Orleans is Sinking' and he leaned back, enjoying the pub washing over him.
Adrienne hummed along with the music from the end of the bar where she sat nursing a beer- the same beer she'd been drinking all night, since she was a little strapped for cash at the moment- and looking through sheafs of photos. Warren had asked her to help with a little task for the PI agency, which involved trying to discover the identity of an employee who was stealing goods from the warehouse building of an engineering supply company. He'd been staking the place out trying to catch someone in the act, but hadn't had any luck so far. So Adrienne had read the building and was now looking through photographs from the company's picnic and Christmas parties, along with drivers licence photographs the company had provided, trying to figure out who she had seen in her reading so she could help Warren discern a pattern for the thefts and make a positive identification the next time it happened.
She looked up at one of the television screens when she heard the crack of a bat and spotted Garrison across the room. For a moment she thought of looking quickly away and pretending she hadn't seen him, but the idea of it curdled her stomach, and instead she gave him a polite little finger wave and went back to her photos.
And here she was again. It was like having a passive aggressive shadow, Kane thought darkly. Over fifty televisions of various sizes and types in the mansion, and she just had to come to his place to see the game. He was almost tempted to ask Harry to cut her off, just to get her out of here.
Johnny finished his number and Adrienne cheered emphatically. The musician grinned at her and dedicated his next number, The Who's <i>The Seeker,</i> to her, just as he'd done after the Apocalypse attack on New York. She held up her nearly-empty glass at him in salute, laughing.
Even Johnny was getting into it. It was getting old and it had to stop. Kane waited for the band to take their break before walking over to the other side of the bar, setting his drink down deliberately next to her. "This isn't funny any more, Adrienne."
"What's not funny?" Adrienne asked, honest confusion on her face.
"There is an entire mansion to avoid each other in, and somehow, every time I turn around, you just happen to be there." He could feel the anger building. "Just because you've decided you're sorry doesn't mean that everything gets fixed, and the more you keep pushing me-"
"-Excuse me," Adrienne interrupted with a laugh of disbelief, "pushing you? Pushing you to what purpose, exactly? Following you around like a puppy trying to fix things because I just can't bear to be apart from you, so I'm pushing you to fix everything and forgive me and take me back?" She held back the laugh this time, but only barely. "What the fuck kind of deluded world have you been inhabiting, exactly?" The incident with him punching the porch railing flashed in her mind and Adrienne's desire to tiptoe around Garrison finally evaporated. "I'm not here in this pub for you!"
Kane realized his mouth was open, and he snapped it shut angrily. "You didn't even think about anyone here until the sky caved in, and then you just show up like nothing has happened! So don't give me this line that you-"
"-Wait, I'm sorry, are you a fucking mindreader now?" Adrienne shot back, fighting to keep her voice below a shout. "Except no, that's not right, if you were a mindreader, you'd realize how fucking wrong you are about me so obviously you have absolutely not the slightest fucking clue what the fuck I was thinking about. I 'didn't think about anyone here?' Fuck that! In what fucking deluded world do you have the right to tell me what the fuck I was thinking?"
"Don't you try and shove this back on me." Kane said, pointing at her. "I'm not the one that abandoned everyone without so much as a phone call. Until everything went to hell. Oh, and then you're everyone's best friend and star teacher again. So that's-"
"-Okay, first of all, I'm not shoving anything back on you, I'm just trying to get something through that thick fucking skull of yours. And secondly, Christ, are you still singing that song?!" she asked, exasperated. "Abandoned everyone? Jesus, that's getting old. You say abandoned, I say I did what I was told to do to by fucking dangerous assholes to keep everyone I feel responsible for safe. And guess what? I can't change what I did now. And if you can't accept the decisions I made, I can't keep making that my problem." She punctuated this with a shrug.
"See, now you're twisting it. You know that you-"
"-I'm not twisting shit!" she retorted, finding this whole thing just incredulous now. Seriously, was he living on another fucking planet? Where was he getting this shit from? "I'm out of your life, which is what you seem to want! I'm not pushing you! I am sitting here quietly- well, not so quietly now- doing research, drinking the one beer in my weekly budget, watching my Sox get their asses kicked again. If you have a problem with me being back and acting like everyone's best friend and star teacher, it's your problem, not mine. This is my life. I know you don't give a shit about what I had to go through to get back here, but I fought for this. Now I'm going to enjoy it. So... just fucking deal, Slick."
Kane stood there for a long moment, mouth agape. Finally, he shook his head and stalked off, throwing down a few bills to cover his drinks and walking out the door, leaving the half finished pint behind.
"Thanks for not breaking anything this time!" she called out in a singsong voice as he took off. Staring at his half-finished pint, Adrienne shrugged and picked it up, taking a long swallow out of it. Hey, free beer was free beer, especially when one was on a budget!
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