xp_logs | Terry and Crystal - Friends Will Be Friends

Terry needs a place to stay, and Crystal volunteers to share her suite.

Long enough after the conversation with Bobby to have packed up her bag and down a glass or two of water (and to have sent and received some texts), Terry knocked on Crystal's door. She leaned into one hand against the doorframe and hitched the armload of folders and paperwork she'd gained since arriving a little more securely in her other arm.

Crystal opened the door to her suite, smiling as she welcomed in her invited guest. "Terry, come in!" There weren't very many people Crystal would voluntarily share a room or suite with, but Terry was one of the few who had made the list of acceptable suitemates.

Terry's smile was small, but sincere enough to see her friend. "Thanks. M'sorry for the late notice..." Her voice trailed off as she shrugged a little sheepishly and straightened from her lean to enter. "How's the form?" she asked, slipping into one of her irish idioms more easily due to the after effects of awkward conversations and whiskey.

"There is no need for you to apologize," Crystal replied. It wasn't hard to guess the reason Terry needed a place to spend the night, although the exact circumstances and details were unknown to Crystal. Clearly Bobby and Terry weren't living happily ever after at the moment. "I'm doing well. Ahura just turned three last week," she said, referring to her young nephew. That was what she needed to focus on at the moment, her life at the school and her family, not the rather unusual way she had spent the past several months.

Bobby and Terry hadn't lived happily ever after almost since they got married. Both times. The corners of her eyes crinkled as she offered a 'how sweet' smile for Crystal's news. "Fun age," she said, swinging her bag down to her feet as she glanced around.

Crystal kept her living space extremely neat. The rooms hadn't been nearly so tidy while she had shared the space with Forge, but when she lived on her own everything had a place and stayed there unless it was in use. She'd had her own furniture brought in when she first moved into the mansion as a teacher rather than a student, and although she hadn't always lived at the mansion since then, the furnishings had remained. "I have been thinking about spending more time in Attilan so I can be more than an occasional visitor in his life." Having a teleporter on speed-dial made long-distance travel rather quick and easy.

Guilt flickered across Terry's face and she crouched to put her armload of papers down on top of her bag, unwilling to intrude further on the room's order. "Do it. There is nothing that can be replacing actual face time," she said emphatically, then looked up and over at Crystal with a wistful smile. "I have not been much of a long-distance friend meself, have I?"

"We have both been leading rather busy lives," Crystal said reassuringly. While the two of them had kept somewhat in touch, it hadn't been easy to remain in constant contact all of the time. Plus, Crystal Amaquelin had been on sabbatical over the summer, Vanessa had gone missing, there had been cases to take care of... Crystal probably hadn't been too much of a friend to anyone herself lately. She made a mental note to try to do something about that soon. "Do you want something to eat or drink? I don't know if you're tired and wish to go to bed soon or if you would like to stay up and work or talk."

Terry laughed out loud at Crystal's reassurance. "That tis an understatement, isn't it?" she asked, only peripherally aware of things outside her own sphere of 'busy'. "Something on the stomach might be good. Since I left m' bottle in the boyo's office and now cannot be getting pissed."

Perhaps some people would have taken that as an invitation to offer Terry something alcoholic or even to go out drinking, but Crystal wasn't one of those people. She certainly wasn't against the idea of drinking, and indeed had even shown up drunk at a party at Silver at the tender age of sixteen (although the drinking itself had been done at a party in Attilan, where partaking of alcohol at that age was legal), but she also didn't believe that drinking heavily solved anything. And she was assuming that Terry had already helped herself to whatever was in the bottle she had left with 'the boyo.' "How about soup or a sandwich and water, coffee, or tea?"

Terry stood and stretched her arms over her head, pulling on her elbows one at a time before dropping her arms to her side with a flap. "Sounds good, but don't trouble yourself about it. I can scrounge in the kitchen for m'self." She paused, then added, "It is good t' see you. In case I have been too thick to say it before now."

Crystal's refrigerator tended to be fairly empty, tending to contain only a day's worth of leftovers, fruit, cheese, and drinks, but there usually appeared to be a steady stream of ready-to-eat food in the main kitchen. Still, she wanted to be able to be a good hostess, and could provide Terry with what she had offered. Crystal missed having Lorna in charge of the mansion's large kitchen, but despite the fact that she was away, the students, staff, and other residents were never lacking for food.

Crystal smiled at Terry again. "It is good to see you, too. I will not press you on anything, but if you do wish to talk about anything, I am here for that."

"I know, mo cara. I know," Terry assured Crystal, before scrubbing her hands up into her hair and pulling it up and away from her face. "Maybe when I have something I know to speak of." She looked to what she assumed to be the spare room and tipped her head. "That one?"

Crystal nodded. "I wake up early in the morning to fly and exercise before I begin my day, but hopefully that will not disturb your sleep." It was doubtful that most people would be bothered by any light sound she might make in the morning, but Terry's powers gave her a sense of hearing far beyond that of almost everyone else. "I even take a direct route and leave through the window in my bedroom sometimes."

"Earplugs, darling," Terry drawls with a grin. "They work wonders for m'sleep. If I can man-- ah." Terry had been about to say 'sleep through Bobby's snoring,' but ended up tripping over the words. She smiled and gave her head a shake, then leaned over to snatch up the strap of her bag.

Crystal wasn't sure how long Terry would stay with her, but she was glad to be back at the mansion rather than in Jean-Paul's apartment. The mansion wasn't lacking for empty rooms, so while she wouldn't have minded letting Terry stay in the suite even while Crystal wasn't spending the nights there herself, it would appear that being completely alone wasn't quite what Terry wanted at the moment. And that was perfectly fine with Crystal, although she did hope that Terry and Bobby could work things out between them. Long distance relationships could work, but not all of them could be successful, and usually that situation wasn't ideal. But Terry had come back, and at least once upon a time she had been very much in love with her husband, and maybe this was one story that could turn into a happy one again. "There are clean towels in the bathroom for you, and Terry... the room is yours as long as you need it."

"Clean towels and everything. You will be spoiling me, Crystal," Terry teased tiredly and gave her friend a smile as she moved to the indicated door and opened it. "Thank you," she said once again, putting as much sincerity and warmth into the words as she could before she slid through the doorway, leaving it open behind her.