Garrison and Adrienne - Backdated

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Adrienne takes Garrison out for dinner on his birthday.

Atlantis Fish and Chips probably wasn't the classiest place for a birthday dinner. Sure, Adrienne could have taken Garrison somewhere fancy in the city. She liked taking him out around town to be seen. Though he liked to tease her about being happily middle class, and make fun of her upper-crustyness, he had no trouble fitting in no matter where she took him. But still. She knew he only went to fancy places because she asked him, and that they weren't really his cup of tea. And since this was his birthday, she figured the appropriate thing to do would be to take him somewhere she knew he could relax and have fun, rather than somewhere stuffy and unfamiliar. Besides, it was closer to Harry's, which where some of the others were meeting up with them after dinner to pay homage to the Mountie.

And since she'd technically rented the place out, closing it for a private function, Nancy-Ann had even let her bring in a six pack to drink with their meal. "Present time?" Adrienne inquired while they waited for their fish to fry. She put an envelope on the table and slid it towards him. "I doubled the next highest bid at the Jays Care Charity Auction," she explained, not because she wanted him to know it had been expensive, but because she wanted him to know part of his present was a donation to the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto on his behalf. She'd figured he would like that. "They call it the Perfect Game package," she explained. "Thirty minutes for you and one of your buddies-" she'd figured Logan, but she hadn't filled that part of the paperwork in yet- "to train with Mark Buehrle and Pete Walker; pregame batting practice; two jerseys; and four tickets to a game in the Comfort Zone seats."

"Seriously?" He opened the envelope to look at the tickets and the printed card that explained the details of the pitching lesson and how to book it. "Geez, Adrienne. This is terrific, but it must have cost a fortune, babe."

"It's for charity," Adrienne answered. "And that would make it worth it, even if it wasn't for your birthday. Just enjoy," she urged with a smile. "And hey, maybe you'll get scouted at the lesson and the Jays will let you pitch in real games. You're probably better than half their rotation right now," she teased.

"Yeah, yeah, you're funny. The Red Sox are having a nice start, that's all." Kane said, although the grin hadn't left his face. "And I better not show up with a two hundred mile fastball and out myself. So, the question is who do I take with me? You ever wanted to learn how to throw a cutter?"

"Sure, but you can teach me that after they teach you," she suggested, sipping her beer. "I'd rather have you yelling at me than Pete Walker. I think you should take Logan, and pimp the adamantium bones to the organization. He could slide without breaking his legs, giving the Jays another guy who could play in the big leagues for you, since he wouldn't give you injury worries like your current guys."

"That's dirty pool. Reyes really mashed up his ankle." Kane scowled at him, mostly in jest. Like any rival baseball fans, they spent an inordinate amount of time harassing each other about their fortunes. At least she didn't bring it up in bed. "Maybe I should bring my sister. Not that I want her single and near the Jays clubhouse, mind you."

Victoria Kane was whip smart, quite attractive, and had perhaps the worst taste in men on the planet. She didn't date the abusive; the one boyfriend that had hit her while he was drunk discovered quickly and painfully that she was a graduate of the Pete Wisdom School of Self-Defense. While his collarbone, wrist and swollen testicles were healing, he'd received a visit from a tall Mountie who only smiled and talked pleasently about how poor a decision it would be to even entertain the idea of revenge. He took the hint and was never heard from again.

Vikks had actually been second on Adrienne's list of people who she'd like to see accompany Garrison, right behind Logan, so she grinned at him for the suggestion. "I think that would be fantastic. That Kawasaki guy looks adorable, I think if he's single you should hook Vikks up with him."

"We do not set people up with Vikks. Ever. That makes me partially responsible for her awful decisions." He dug into his halibut with a smile. "This is fantastic, Adri. I- you know, I didn't really know what to do with my birthday this year, and I can't think of anyway that I'd rather spend it."

Adrienne gave him a wicked smile as he talked about not setting up his sister. "Okay, well I'll set her up, then. That way you're not at all responsible." She took a swig from her beer. "I'm glad you're having a good time," she smiled, picking up a couple fries with her fingers. "And this is just the beginning. People are gonna meet us at Harry's after dinner. Harry gave us the party room upstairs, and I borrowed a PS3 and 'MLB13 The Show' for people to play while they celebrate your birth."

"Nothing like watching Logan try and play a video game." Kane laughed. Logan liked to say he was the best at what he does, but that clearly never involved video games. "So is it supposed to be a surprise? Should I practice my 'stunned' face?"

"I think you should definitely practice that face, yeah," Adrienne nodded. "And hey, Logan's beating us all in fantasy baseball right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if he kicked our asses at video games right now, too," she warned, then rose from the booth. "Gotta go to the ladies. Back in a sec," she announced.

When she returned, she was frowning. "Damn. I'm out of hand coating solution," she muttered. "Guess I shouldn't have washed my hands." She slid back into the booth, still frowning, and hesitated with her hands over her cutlery. "This fish is probably too flaky to eat with my hands, eh? Curses! Sorry, this is probably going to suck if I Read every damn thing I touch for the rest of the night."

"Yeah. You'd hate my high school girlfriend." Kane said, but got up to see if he could see into the kitchen. "Give it a try while I try and flag them down for a plastic set from the take-away side. If you start flashing, you'll have to wait until I can get their attention... that sentence is not meant to survive out of context."

Snickering, Adrienne picked up the cutlery. But nothing happened. She frowned at it. "Huh." She set it down and picked it up again. Still nothing. "Weird. Maybe I lost my powers," she mused with a smirk. "Maybe I'll be the mansion's first non-mutant resident." Or maybe Haller's suggestion that cleaning out her mindscape could bring about more powers control had finally come true. Focusing hard, Adrienne told herself she wanted to Read her fork. Her eyes glazed over for an instant before she returned her attention to Garrison. Okay, so she hadn't lost her powers. She could apparently choose when she wanted to use them. Finally.

"No problems with the fork and knife?"

Adrienne was staring at the cutlery, still having trouble grasping what exactly was going on. "Uhh... no," she finally answered when she took her attention away from the fork and knife and digested his question. "No. No problems." She looked up at him, frowning. "I... I only Read it when I told myself to. I... I can touch it without anything happening. I... I can touch it without anything happening." She suddenly broke into a grin that lit up her entire face, and started poking random things with her fingers. The table. The chair. Her plate. Garrison's plate. Garrison's shirt. "But my hands don't feel funny, the way they did in Genosha when I lost my powers." She kept poking him in the arm, as if expecting to read his shirt any moment now.

"Maybe when they were inside your head fixing things up, they also removed the mental block you had controlling in?" Garrison was just guessing, but he remembered a conversation with Xavier once, who had suggested that Adrienne's inability to control her powers wasn't based on a physical limitation she was suffering. One look at her grin told him she was thinking the same thing.

"Yeah," Adrienne nodded, still grinning. "Haller told me it might happen. And believe me, having been forewarned is the only thing that's keeping me from squealing like an eleven year-old at a double-bill of Bieber and One Direction." She was still poking Garrison's shirt. "Removed the mental block," she mused, repeating his line. "Yeah, that's exactly what Haller did. He figured out my inability to let go of Readings was also causing an inability to develop my powers any further. When he severed the link between Reading and memory, he said it might be possible for me to gain more control. But how did you know that?" she asked, still beaming at him.

"I'm a cop. I have ways of gathering information." He grinned, a mirror of her own. "Also, I asked the Prof. He'd had a theory about it when you first came, but because of how your powers are structured, it's not something you want to try messing with unless you have to, even if you are the big brain. Congrats babe."

"Thank you, thank you," Adrienne retorted, taking bows as if she'd actually done anything. "Let's hope it's a permanent thing and not just exclusive to cutlery." She stopped poking Garrison and dug back into her dinner and beer with excited energy. She'd been struck by her increased sense of touch when she'd switched to the solution after so many years of wearing gloves, but this was even better. Though the coating solution she'd worn hadn't restricted her movements or anything like that, it had slightly restricted her sense of touch. Everything felt different now. "Okay, so, mister information gatherer," she began curiously, "it seems as if I haven't lost my powers... but have you ever heard of anyone actually losing their powers before?"

"Sure. Xavier's files have details of mutants who have pushed their powers too far and burned them out temporarily and permanently. You should talk to Ms Munroe over at Snow Valley. She lost her powers after holding back a hurricane in New Orleans years ago. Took a long time to come back."

Adrienne's eyes widened. "Wow. That's crazy." She drained her beer and contemplated ordering another, but decided to wait until they got to Harry's. "Do you ever wish you'd lose yours?" she asked him, eyebrow raised.

"No. Other than the odd wish for a normal life, I'm pretty lucky as a mutant. With a little discipline, I can pass for a normal person. I don't get sick, I don't get hurt for long, I can do pretty much anything I want physically and I don't need to go to the gym to look like this. What do they call them at Silver; Kens? I'm a Ken; I get all the positives of mutation and none of the negatives. I supposed that's why I'm here, really, because I could opt out and say it isn't my problem, when so many can't. You?"

Adrienne didn't have to think about it for very long. Everything she'd just felt when she'd thought for that split second that she'd lost her powers was still fresh in her mind. "Nope," she shook her head. "I know Emma likes to describe us as reacting to our childhoods in opposite ways- that she developed a diamond skin, and I developed a power where everything I touch... touched," she corrected with a small smile, "hurt me- and that used to make me resent my mutation sometimes, but now... I wouldn't want to be without it. I think I'd be alright if I was without it," she shrugged, "I mean, I wouldn't fall to pieces, I don't think. But for all that it is... was... used to be, a real pain in the ass sometimes, it's part of my life, and I wouldn't be who I am without it. Of course," she added with a smirk and a shrug, "it took coming here, and those... missions you kept asking me to help you with when I first arrived, to make me finally realize that I could use the mutation to help people, so that helped me appreciate it more. Who knows, I might still resent it if you hadn't helped me figure that part out," she mused. "And now that I'm sort of a Ken, too," she grinned, "without the worst of the negatives I used to have, it's all pretty cool.

If you didn't have your power," she asked then, "but you had someone else's... but you had to start from scratch with it, with no training at all, what power would you want?"

"Never really thought about it. I mean, flight obviously. I think everyone dreams what it would be like to be up there, with the ability to move at will. You?"

"Shapeshifting," she replied, again without any hesitation. "I could buy any piece of clothing I took a fancy to, without any worry towards body type or colouring. In fact," she added, eyes widening as the prospect dawned on her, "I could buy all the clothing."

"You sure that you're not being overly influenced by your friendship with Vanessa? Whom, as I recall, you were fond of shifting shapes with?" His smile grew slightly wicked.

"On the contrary; I think my friendship with Vanessa was influenced by my interest in shapeshifting," Adrienne joked. But her smile had a melancholy undertone; she missed her friend. Still, life went on, and there was nothing she could do about Vanessa being away, so what was the use in moping about it? "She's supposed to be back in the city soon," she told Garrison happily. "I wanna see if I can get her to go motorcycle shopping with me. I figure it may be the only type of shopping I don't have to bribe her with pointy weapons to do. How about you? Can you be bribed to come motorcycle shopping?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow, finishing her fish and picking up a few more fries.

"I can, although I know as much about motorcycles as I do about particle physics".