Warren and Jennifer

[x-shehulk.livejournal.com]

Deciding he's been avoiding his partner for too long, Warren comes calling with an apology - and an explanation - for Walters.





Jennifer's apartment wasn't actually all that far from the office, which was why she hadn't argued at all when Warren suggested that location for their law firm.  Technically not in District X, it was close enough to the invisible line drawn around the mutant friendly space that it was almost technically in it.  Because it wasn't, sadly, it meant her rent hadn't dropped when she'd gotten back in after the city had started allowing citizens who'd evacuated back into the city.  The paycheck from Walters and Worthington was good enough that she guessed she could have moved but, hell, that took effort and she'd been too busy to even think about trying to find a better place. 

Besides, that meant she might have to pay for cable.  She sat back as the TV flickered to life and the Oxygen channel appeared; Jennifer thought about it and shrugged as she settled back on the couch with her ice cream.  It was that kind of a night. 

Or perhaps not. Warren had (in his mind) finished his catch up after his jaunt overseas, and he figured it was time to make further amends with his partner. He'd started thinking about it even more since his discussion with Vanessa, and (as per usual), she'd given him a lot to think about. 

So he'd picked up a bottle of wine on his way over, surprising Jen with a buzz at her door. Surprise, you have a visitor! 

The universe hated her.  Sighing, Jennifer shoved the spoon into the ice cream as she got to her feet.  It was probably her elderly next door neighbor - the old woman was sweet but forgetful.  Jen had lost count of the number of times she'd been called on to find something (keys, a book, her cat that one time); occasionally she'd been called upon to get something off of a high shelf or lug around furniture. 

She didn't mind, really, but she'd been hoping for a quiet night in. 

Of course, when she opened the door, it wasn't the smiling little old lady she'd been expecting.  Jennifer's eyes narrowed sharply at the sight of Warren on her doorstep and shook her container of ice cream at him.  "Seriously?  Now you show up, Worthington?  You'd better have one hell of an apology lined up for me, especially if you're going to make me miss my marathon TV watching tonight." 

"I come bringing wine?" He offered her his best charming yet sheepish smile, offering her the bottle. "And an apology. Along with an explanation." It wasn't fair of him to keep it from her, though he wasn't sure how telling her would go. 

Jennifer didn't need to look at the bottle to know it was a wine worthy of groveling - Warren never had anything but the best.  Most of the time, anyway.  Of course she relented because despite her high annoyance with him, she'd never been able to shut the door in his face. 

Tempted.  Highly tempted.  But never been able to go through with it. 

"Get in here," she said, stepping back to give him enough room to get in before shutting her door.  "Mr. Collins across the hall is probably watching us from the peephole."  Jennifer waved for good measure. 

Warren turned and waved as well, flashing the potential spy a smile as well. He then stepped into the apartment, glancing around briefly. 

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" He had just appeared without warning, she could have had plans. 

"Not really," she said, heading to the little kitchen to grab the two wineglasses she actually owned.  Jennifer gave her ice cream a sad glance but shoved it back in the freezer before it could melt - wine and apologies now, ice cream and Sex in the City later.  

"Come on, Warren, let's crack that bottle and get to the begging for my forgiveness.  That's always the fun part." 

She headed towards the couch which was the only thing outside of the kitchen table and chairs in the way of furniture in the front part of her living room.  This had less to do with penny pinching and everything to do with finding pieces of furniture that could actually stand up to her particular level of abuse.  Sturdy, cheap furniture was hard to come by sometimes. 

Warren glanced at the furniture, and made a mental note to talk to Kyle or Fred about the mansion's furniture provider. His apartment didn't have much more furniture than hers, and he'd been informed that his was woefully inadequate. He opened the bottle with a practiced move or two, extending the bottle out so he could pour the wine into the glasses without spilling a drop. Glasses filled, he placed the bottle on her coffee table, taking a seat next to her. 

And suddenly, he was nervous. Warren hadn't ever had to have this conversation with anyone before - everyone he'd been close enough to to tell already knew, he didn't have to try and explain the X-Men to them. And he wasn't entirely sure how Jen would take it. Maybe he should have been up front with her about this before they'd gone into partnership, given her the opportunity to back out then. He'd hoped the distance would give her plausible deniability  if someone came a-questioning, but he realised that he couldn't keep working with her without telling her. 

"You already know that I'm sorry. And I know when we went into partnership together that I'd be a little part time, and I wouldn't explain why." He paused, trying to figure out how to explain things. "I'd wanted to give you some distance, some plausible deniability. Which is not fair to you, not when I do disappear like that. But I do owe you an explanation, but I am going to have to ask that if I tell you, you can't share the information. Which isn't fair either, but it's not just my secret to be kept, and there's the safety of a great many people at risk if you do share it." 

Whatever she'd been expecting, this hadn't been it.  She and Warren had known each other for a long time and she'd seen a lot of sides.  This was new.  Jennifer leaned back against the couch but ignored the wine in her hand.  Warren's words had snapped her complete attention to him and she was frowning, concerned.  "That's not really inspiring confidence, Warren," she said, trying to figure out what was going on. 

"I never thought I'd end up asking you this but whatever this is, is it legal?  Because I'm starting to get really worried here." 

"In the strictest sense of the word - not entirely." He paused. "It's not unethical, or immoral, and there is a certain level of sanction we have from various authorities." There was another break, and he frowned, leaning forward to put down his glass of wine. 

"I'm not explaining myself very well, I know. I'm sorry. I've never -- had this conversation with anyone before. I don't know how people do it." Or if they did it, when it wasn't a life or death situation. 'By the way, I'm a mutant superhero/vigilante/soldier', however you wanted to spin it. 

"I'm a member of a team of mutant superheroes. For lack of a better word to use." 

Very carefully, Jennifer leaned over and placed her wine glass on the floor.  "I'm sorry, what?"  she asked.  She was staring at him like he'd sprouted another head.  "You did not just say that you're part of a team of mutant superheroes." 

"That's what I said." Warren had the grace to look sheepish for a moment. "It's not a good description, but we basically do what we can to protect mutants, and defend everyone against rogue mutants. Magneto, the Brotherhood, Apocalypse, and a myriad of others." 

For an entire minute, all Jennifer did was stare at him.  Then she suddenly surged to her feet, sending the couch sliding back by about 10 inches, with Warren still on it, and she stalked to her purse.  Holding up her hand to prevent Warren from saying anything, she dug out her wallet and cell phone.  A punch of a few numbers, known by heart, had her on the line with her favorite Indian place that delivered. 

She ordered enough for two while her eyes never strayed from Warren's before telling them she was going to pay by credit card when they delivered.  When she was done, she dropped her phone back into her purse and came over to stand in front of her friend.  "Sorry but there's no way I can listen to this without something to eat.  Warren - this isn't your weird idea of a joke, is it?  Prank the new partner?"  She shook her head and grabbed fistfuls of her hair.  "No, forget I asked.  You only give me that look when it's actually serious." 

"No, I'm definitely serious." Even if Warren was at all any good with pranks, this wasn't the sort of thing he would joke about. He wasn't sure if Jen wanted to continue to discuss it before the food arrived, so he didn't continue, instead picking up his wine glass so he could start drinking again. 

"Okay, so we've established a base line that you're not kidding."  Or he didn't think he was kidding but Jennifer immediately dismissed that from her mind.  Warren had been her best friend for years, she'd know if he'd gone around the bend. Of course, shouldn't she have known that he was a superhero ...? Jennifer ran over what he'd shared so far and clutched onto a few things that sounded familiar.  

"So, what, you're the anti-Brotherhood or something?  And -"  Her eyes narrowed slightly in thought.  "And part of that group helping out when New York was under siege.  I ... why?"  She had a lot of questions but 'why' seemed like a good place to start. 

"We're called the X-Men," he replied with an attempt at a smile. And as for why... Warren had been part of the team for so long, he hadn't thought about why any more. It just was. "And why? Because someone needed to do it. When the team started, there wasn't any SHIELD, law enforcement didn't have the resources to deal with mutants. Someone needed to step in, and we have the ability and the resources to do it. And there's no reason why humanity and mutants couldn't live together, working side by side, but for that to ever happen people have to know that they're safe, that mutants aren't going to abuse their powers to put themselves at the top. So we do what we can to prevent that, and to likewise protect mutants, so they don't grow up to be the second coming of Magneto. Obviously we can't be everywhere, and save everyone, but we try." 

She'd started to walk during when he'd started to answer, a habit she'd developed since college.  Jennifer always felt that her mind was more clear when she walked and even if it wasn't, it helped her think better.  What Warren was saying sounded good - she'd been on the receiving end of mutant bigotry more than once and while she shrugged it off these days, it would be nice to walk down the street without people being afraid.  And he was right in that mutants needed to feel safe.  But ... 

"Warren, you're a lawyer.  Vigilante justice is frowned on by the authorities for a reason.  How do you balance the legality of what you're doing?"  The repercussions of what he was doing on their fledgling law firm were potentially huge. 

"It's not always easy, I'll admit that. But I was an X-Man before I was a lawyer. And where we can let the authorities handle something, we do. Or we work with them. Or we do work through proper channels - Red X, HeliX, Elpis, X-Factor Investigations, the school -- it's not just about beating the bad guys. It's about making the world a better place, and sometimes you can't do that without taking direct action." He sighed, finishing off his glass of wine in one swallow. "If I thought it would hurt my work - or the firm - then I'd make the choice. But while we're not legal in the strictest sense, if there was an issue, we have connections. I'd be able to work it out." If Garrison could balance working with the FBI and being an X-Man, then he could balance being a lawyer and an X-Man. 

"...alright, I'll accept that.  You're a big boy now, Warren, and I've seen you make some stupid decisions -"  She laughed suddenly and sat back down on the couch in a tangle of long green limbs.  "But fuck if you haven't seen me do the same.  Okay, I can accept that you won't put the firm at risk."  Jennifer turned her head in his direction and caught his eyes.  "You said you'd been an ... X-Man? ... longer than you've been a lawyer.  How long have you been running around fighting for justice outside of the court room?" 

"... since I was a teenager." It was strange, to think about it in that sense, but it had been that long. They'd been a much smaller team then, with far more desperate need to do what they could for the world. "Most of the team are graduates of Xavier's. Obviously not everyone who went to school there did go on to be X-Men, or even thought about it. But for some of us..." He shrugged. "We've dedicated our lives to this, to making Charles' dream a reality." 

Suddenly she was tempted to dump the entire bottle of wine over the top of his head.  "Since you were - that was before we met!  You were a superhero in secret since before college?!"  Covering her face in her hands, Jennifer struggled to control the "Must strangle Warren" impulse.  When it finally passed, she peeked at him between her fingers.  "Wait.  Charles Xavier?  The head of that school - he's the man behind curtain?" 

"He is," Warren nodded. "He -- I don't know how he does it, to be honest. The amount of pies he has his finger in, but it all started with him. And the school. If they were ever likely to let a mutant win the Nobel Peace Prize... it would be him." 

"I want to meet him."  Jennifer dropped her hands and looked squarely at Warren.  "If you're going to be tired to this ... secret life while we're partners, Warren, I'd like to meet him."  Not that she hadn't previously - she'd always admired the amount of work Xavier did with the Institute but she'd always held back from approaching thanks to the demanding, if fulfilling, work she'd been doing previously.  

Now, though, it seemed as if Xavier had been doing a lot more than simply being a voice for mutant rights. 

"Of course," Warren replied with a smile. "I'm sure he would love to meet you." As likely would some of the team, but that was neither here nor there. "I'll have a chat to him, set something up." 

He leaned back, his gaze growing serious again. "I know I haven't been fair to you, or our clients, coming and going the way I did. And being gone for so long. And to be honest, after Genosha, I could do with a break. Really devote my time and energy to the firm. We've got so much work on our plates, and I've been letting you carry it for too long." 

Her hands dropped to her lap and her head thunked back against the couch.  "War, I swear, you're deliberately putting me through an emotional rollercoaster right now," Jennifer sighed as she studied the ceiling and it's myriad of weird blotches that had been there since she'd started living there.  "Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of having you around on a full time basis.  Bossing you around by phone and e-mail just doesn't have the same feel to it.  It just sounded like this group was, well, your first love.  Though if the footage of Genosha was anything to go by and if you were there, yeah, I'd want a vacation, too." 

She looked at him.  "Though would you really call coming to work with me every day a vacation?"

"Are you implying that that seeing you every day wouldn't be an absolute pleasure?" The smile started to creep back on Warren's face, his shoulders relaxing just slightly. 

Jennifer wiggled her eyebrows at him in a ridiculous fashion.  "Oh, believe you me, seeing me every day is not only a pleasure but a treat as well - unless you piss me off.  But you're so good with the apologies ..."

Warren sighed melodramatically, before grinning at his partner. 

"I suspect I'm going to be spending a lot of money on wine in the very near future."