L:og: Garrison/Adrienne

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Following the disaster with SHIELD, Kane takes advantage of Adrienne offer to get out of town, and the pair head down to Florida for the weekend to watch some Spring Training.



"I come bearing hot dogs. And beer," Adrienne announced in an overly cheerful voice as she found her way back to her seat before the Jays/Red Sox game in Fort Meyers. They'd come early to watch the warmups, as they usually did, and since it was an evening game they'd decided to eat supper at the ballpark. Adrienne had been tasked to pick up the hot dogs and beer after losing some stupid bet she'd made with Garrison about the velocity on the radar gun while they'd been watching the pitchers warm up. Part of the bet had also been that she provide service with a smile upon delivery, since she'd been sore about losing the bet; hence the fake cheerfulness. "Here you are, Sir! I hope this is to your liking!"

"You spit on this, didn't you." Kane said as he accepted the hotdog. It was mostly in jest. He didn't think she would; after all, she had overguessed Beckett's delivery by 4mph. At the same time, he wouldn't put it past her either, and assumed she was suspicious enough to know that he knew the gun in Dunedin was notoriously dialed low.

"The hot dog? Nope," she replied sweetly, but her eyes cut to his beer as she handed it over. "I have yielded to your radar gun expertise with good grace; I figure you probably spent a lot of time clocking speeding cars on those two-lane Canadian highways way back when. I can't compete with that." She grabbed a few fries from the tray she'd bought for herself and set her beer on the floor at her feet.

"I never worked highway patrol. Makes the horses tired." He took a sip and leaned back as another batting practice home run was launched. "But it is good to see that your waitressing skills are up to speed. Do you want me to talk to Harry? See if he can use someone for the night shift?"

"Sure, a fourth job might be just what I need to get me back to my former lap of luxury," Adrienne smirked. "I hate sleep anyway." She adjusted her Sox cap against the evening sun and picked up her beer. "I always thought horses liked chasing cars. Or is that just dogs?"

"No, horses like hanging out on the field grazing. Naturally lazy bastards if you let them." Kane grinned. The mansion horses were a nice subsituite, but it had been too long since he'd been up on a properly RCMP trained mount. To the point that he'd considered commendeering an NYPC patrol mount for an afternoon.

"Oops, looks like we have a game." He said as the practice field cleared for the anthem.

After the anthems, Adrienne picked up where they'd left off. "The operative word there being 'if you let them', right?" she pointed out. "Maybe that's why Ginger cringes every time I show up in the stables. Because I make her move her ass during our trail rides instead of letting her plod along and stop every two minutes for grass."

"You're riding regularly?"

Adrienne nodded. "Thank you, Hallowe'en curse," she chuckled, though she tried not to sound too happy about it since she knew what the curse had done to Garrison. "Once the fear was gone and I got used to the pounding my ass took in the saddle, I developed quite the taste for it. The fact that over the winter I couldn't zoom around on my motorcycle with the wind in my hair may have contributed to my enjoyment of it, too; horseback riding isn't a bad substitution for a bike, really," she mused thoughtfully.

"Wonders may never cease." Kane nodded, remembering her cowgirl outfit. Beckett snuck a strike past Davis while his attention was elsewhere. "Give it some time and we can send you on one of those cattle drive vacations. You can take a herd through New Mexico."

"Uhh... I don't think the curse cured me of my fear of cows," Adrienne admitted, the mental picture of what Garrison put into her head making her squirm. She booed when Davis ripped one down the third base side into left field and sped in for a double.

"You would have hoped it would have cured you of your vegetarian ways. Oh, watch. Beckett's about to give up third base." He took a bite of his hotdog when as predicted, the Red Sox starter's slow slide step delivery allowed the speedy Davis to beat the throw by several feet.

She thwapped him on the shoulder as if he'd been personally responsible for the stolen base as a strangled noise escaped her throat. "I bet Johnson and Bautista and Lind can't score him," she muttered, chomping on some more fries. "And hey, my vegetarian ways don't need to be cured with a curse. I'm fine the way I am. I was born this way, baby," she quoted melodramatically.

"What? Unnaturally ill-suited to surviving as a primate? When the post-apocalypse happens, you're going to feel mighty silly trying to stalk tomatoes through a desolute bombed out cityscape. Oh look, another ball to Johnson. Think he's going to put runners at the corners for Bautista? Because I read online that he can hit a bit."

Adrienne's response to his mention of primates was to whip out her smartphone and google whether primates were carnivores. It was the mature thing to do. "Well, I'm pretty sure when the post-apocalypse happens, my survival instinct will ensure that my priorities change," she muttered as the phone processed her query. "Of course, all the cows and chickens would probably be just as dead as the tomatoes so unless you carnivores are inclined to become cannibals I think we're all pretty much screwed. Ah hah! There is only one species of primate that is strictly carniverous, and the rest are omnivores or herbivores!" she announced triumphantly, waving the phone at him in an attempt to ignore Garrison's quip about walking Johnson.

"See, omni, as in eat all the things. You are a monovore, and it's a sad sight to-" There was a crack, and Kane paused as his eyes tracked the ball. Not a home run, but deep enough to score the speedy Davis with time to spare. "Witness. If you ate more cow, you'd lose your fear of them."

Letting out another strangled noise at the sac fly, Adrienne whacked him in the arm again. She took another gulp of her beer to keep herself from shouting curses in public and calm herself down. "Do you really think it works that way?" she asked thoughtfully. "That if I ate a cow I wouldn't be afraid of them anymore?" It was an interesting variation on the typical adage of facing your fear. "Isn't that an ancient cannibal warrior type of idea where partaking of the flesh of your enemy gives you his power? Are cows my enemy? Do they have powers I can get from them?"

"Of course. Immensely tasty powers, especially around a BBQ." Lind whiffed at a high fastball and Kane winced. "That way, when you see cow, you don't think 'giant bovine engine of death'. You think 'I'm going to eat that part for dinner you bastard'."

Laughing, Adrienne shook her head and downed some more beer. Lind's subsequent strikeout and the buzz of the crowd that resulted from it improved her mood even further so that the thing about the cows caused her more laughter than it might have. "Okay, so I should eat a bite of your hot dog and I won't be afraid of cows anymore and I'll have tasty powers?" She eyed the hot dog suspiciously. "I dunno if that's enough for me. I think I need more in order to violate my vegetarianism of twenty-five years. Like, I eat a bite of that hot dog and you wear my Sox hat for the rest of the game."

"I'm not mean enough to try to reform a vegetarian with a hotdog. Or brain damaged enough to don a Red Sox cap. What you want is a proper burger; real meat, cooked on a grill, slathered with at least three different condiments that aren't good for you." He paused as Encarnacion ripped one up the line. Youkilos managed to snare it, but could only go to first for the second out. "An ice cold beer, maybe a bag of chips. Perfect."

At least Johnson hadn't scored on the play, and now the Sox had two outs, so there was no thwapping involved this time, even for the comment about being brain damaged to don a Sox cap. "Are you trying to get me to eat the Stras-burger?" she asked suspiciously. "Because I gotta say, as someone who's never even eaten a quarter-pounder, the idea of eating the equivalent of thirty-two of them sort of makes me feel queasy."

"No one needs to eat the Stras-burger." Kane said firmly. "You need a homemade burger; not some fast food imitation."

"I really don't know why I'm surprised with the implication that you make burgers, since I already know you're a man of many talents, but I still am," Adrienne said thoughtfully. She'd seen him cook burgers at the mansion barbecues before, but not being a meat-eater, she hadn't really paid attention to where they'd come from.

"It doesn't have to be one of mine, but you make a good point that I do make the best at Xavier's." Garrison tacked on the unspoken compliment with a grin. Behind his head, Lawrie was smiling at the pitcher and taking a moment to dig into the box. "Cheap sexual innunedo aside, we'll have you gobbling meat in no time."

A fraction of a second later, Lawrie caught up on a slider and smashed it into the alley between centre and right with a tremendous crack.

Adrienne buried her head in her hands so she didn't have to watch the carnage to the Sox that resulted from Lawrie's hit, vocalizing her pain with something about 'lousy tattooed Canadians.' "We should have made a bet that if your team wins this game you pay for the trip," she muttered, still staring at her lap as she ate her fries so she didn't have to see Johnson score and Lawrie hustle in for a triple on the ball that had to be dug out at the wall. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in her Sox to come back from a deficit with the Jays, but getting hit this much this early wasn't a great omen to the pessimistic psychometrist, especially with the way the Jays had been playing so far this spring.

"Two economy tickets and rooms at the local Super 8? That's not too high a bet." He said. "How are you enjoying your room, by the way?"

"Okay, then, it's a bet," Adrienne grinned. "My room? It's fine. They cleaned it up really well after what we did to it a couple years ago," she smirked, cheering as Rasmus popped up to Pedroia to end the inning. "How's yours? Did you find that gecko I left you last night? It was on my windowsill so I put it at your door and nudged it til it went in the room."

"Yes. I left him with a beer and the remote. I think he was watching Dr. Phil when I left." Kane dug into his pocket and passed over an envelope. "Maybe this will ease your loss."

"You could have just sent the photos of your junk to me via cell, you didn't have to actually print them out, you know," Adrienne quipped as she took the envelope.

"That's even funnier considering that's as close as I can get to sex these days. Thank you for reminding me." He said dryly as she opened the envelope to pull out a hotel brochure and a plastic card. It was for one of Orlando's luxury hotels; the kind she normally stayed at during Spring Training. "Since you've been good and haven't complained, I got you a room for our last night before the flight. I'll pick you up in the morning to get to the airport."

"Oooo, niiiiiice! Thanks!" she replied enthusiastically, opening the brochure and taking a quick glance at it. Sure, she hadn't complained- in fact, Adrienne had been proud of how she'd embraced her pauper-dom in the past few months- but a luxury hotel was still a luxury hotel, and she wasn't about to pretend she wasn't interested in staying at one. "You got me a room, though? As in, you're not staying here too?"

"I'm happy with Super 8. The idea of spending as much as I paid in tuition for my first year of university on a room for a night for myself isn't something I can wrap my head around."

"But then... why spend it on me?" Adrienne asked, confused. "I mean, like you said, I haven't complained. I'm happy with Super 8." They weren't even together anymore; why gift her something like this? Did he remember it was her birthday next week, or something? "Are you trying to get rid of me?" she teased.

"No, I would have just asked security to throw you out if I was trying to get rid of you. And the whole accepting gifts thing? You suck at it." Kane said. "Seriously, I understand what rituals like Spring Training can represent to people, especially you. You've done a great job adapting to your entire way of life getting ripped away from you so far. I just figured, well, one night of being able to forget it all and just have things like they were would be good for you."

He took a sip of his beer and paused. "I haven't covered room service or the drinks though. You're on your own there."

This caused the brunette to laugh as Ellsbury came up to bat to start the bottom of the inning. "Noted. And thank you," she said with a sincere nod. "I really do appreciate it, even if I suck at accepting it. You're gonna come back with me after the game to partake of the pool and drinks, though, right? Maybe room service?" Hanging out with one of her closest friends was an important part of 'have things like they were' for Adrienne. "I mean, I'm sure you don't want to go back to Super 8 until the gecko in your room's finished watching his porn and has passed out."

"A pool that doesn't reek of over-chlorination and a drink sounds like a plan, as long as you're not embarassed to be seen slumming with 'the help' poolside."

"You know what I want for my birthday?" Adrienne quipped, poking him in the shoulder. "How 'bout you stop treating me like I'm someone who's embarrased about who I choose to hang around with? Huh? It makes me feel pretty awful when you say things like that, even if you just mean it in jest."

Kane blinked and paused. "You're right. I'm sorry. I won't do it again." She was right. After the efforts she'd made to adapt without her business or money, it was rude to twit her about her upper class past. He took a bite of his hotdog and motioned at the field. "So, someone told the red Sox that there was a game on, right? Because I don't think they showed up."