Garrison and Adrienne (Backdated to Friday)

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Adrienne and Garrison hang out at Harry's during the Canada/US men's Olympic semi-final hockey game and chat about Tandy, job opportunities, birthday presents, being benched, and spring break baseball.

"I don't get it," Adrienne sighed in a defeated tone as she led the way to finding a booth at Harry's. Not that there were any booths to be found. The place was as packed as she'd ever seen it, mostly with men in garishly-patterned red, white, and blue attire, though there was the occasional, more subdued red shirt in the crowd as well, all staring up at the tvs where hockey players skated around. "Isn't there already the Stanley Cup? Why do people care so much about Olympic hockey?" She wasn't really into the Olympics herself. Especially not the Winter Games. Maybe it was the fact she hated the cold. Or that Team USA always had the ugliest outfits at the Games.

"Because NHL hockey is about civic pride. Olympic hockey is about national pride. So when Canada rolls over the US team and sends them to the bench like a bunch of crying nancyboys, the entire country can collectively give our neighbours to the South the finger." Kane explained as they settled in. He was, of course, wearing his brand new Canada hockey jersey, with the emblem stretched across his broad chest.

"Well, that seems rather... petty of you," she retorted in her most patronizing tone. "I thought Canadians didn't gloat. I thought that was why you were so happy you weren't Americans? Because we're the brash, uncouth, rude nation."

"It doesn't apply to hockey. We're always allowed to gloat about hockey. Especially when it's played outdoors. There are rules, you know..."

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "Oh, really? It's in your country's rules? In the Constitution's fine print, I suppose? Wait, do you even have a Constitution?" She couldn't get any farther inside the bar, so she gave up trying to muscle her way through the crowd and just waved at Briar for alcohol. "Is it written on a hockey sweater? Or donut boxes?" she suggested innocently.

"Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It's easier when you don't worship it as some kind of sacred document from on high." He put a shoulder into the crowd and innocently stepped forward. The group parted, unwillingly but without choice thanks to Kane's great strength, and suddenly they found themselves beyond the crush at the bar. "You'll need to know these things when you decide to immigrate to Toronto, you know."

"What, and leave all this?" she answered with a wave of her hand, incredulous look on her face. "Narrow-minded Salem Center buffoons; students who can't control their powers; demons, curses, kidnappings, and all other manner of dangers; that creepy-ass ginger cat... how could I ever leave here? And for what? Crack-addicted mayors, crap sports teams, and even shittier weather than we have here?"

"I really need to find a way to get rid of that cat. The students starting feeding him with the rest of the pets, and it doesn't matter how carefully I lock the door, he still gets in and sleeps on my moose head." Briar gave him an odd look. "Yes, I'll take a Moosehead. So, what was it that you wanted to talk about? Your message sounded important."

Disappointed that he hadn't engaged her in her Canada-bashing, Adrienne pouted for about half a second before she moved on to more pressing matters. "Not as important as a lot of other things we've had to talk about," she prefaced, realizing, not for the first time, that they'd been through a ridiculous amount of drama together. "Just the fact that during Fashion Week Tandy gave me a lot to think about. For one, she asked if I'd be okay with her extending my guardianship past her eighteenth birthday at the end of the month to her twenty-first. With everything she's been struggling with I guess she's feeling like she's not ready to be on her own," she said with a shrug, sipping the beer Briar delivered gratefully.

"Not that surprising. Tandy is a pretty levelheaded kid. Its good she recognizes that she needs a support system still. Are you okey taking it on for another few years?"

"As long as you are," Adrienne responded, and, though rare for her in a public setting, reached out to hold his hand. "Okay with me taking it on, I mean. I think she's going to move into the city for college in the fall, but until then it'll mean some more 'barbecuing' for us."

"I think we're at the point that you don't need to pretend that you're sleeping in my room some nights for any reason other than sex. If she hasn't done it herself yet, I doubt it will be that long before she does."

"Ugh, I don't want to think about that," Adrienne informed him firmly. "If that's true, I may need to re-traumatize her when it comes to wanting to have sex, because that couch orgy thing must be wearing off. Any ideas?"

"Nope. That strategy always goes bad. She's going to do it when she wants to. The best thing you can do is hammer in the protection angle and try your best to ignore the stains."

Adrienne made a face. "Yeah, okay, this part of our conversation is officially over." She cursed at someone who jostled her and made her drip beer onto her red Boston Red Sox t-shirt, which she was deliberately wearing to confuse the hockey fans. "Tandy also asked if I'd basically run her mother's fashion label in her interest," she segued while she shook beer off one hand and then the other. "She'll inherit the partnership when she turns eighteen, but she doesn't know much about the business, so she was thinking about hiring Meridian Enterprises as her consultant to advise her on business decisions."

"Makes sense. You know the industry, have experience in the role, and if there's an established staff in place, it's more of a caretakers role, eh?" Kane took a sip from his pint. "If she wants to run the business, either once she turns eighteen or after college, all you have to do is keep it solvent and stable."

"And keep the business partner in check, apparently," Adrienne added with a wrinkle of her nose. "Seems like she's been trying to cut Tandy out and take the whole thing over herself. I can't say I blame her," she shrugged. "It's what I probably would have done if my business partner died and her replacement turned out to be a kid who'd never shown much interest in the field. But now it looks like I've got to put a halt to her scheming, which means I may have to dust off my Ruthless Bitch Hat." She wasn't sure how Garrison would feel about that, which was why she'd told Tandy she'd discuss the whole thing with him rather than agreeing immediately to work as Tandy's adviser.

"Hey, it's business. I get that. I'm sure, especially considering your background, she's going to be a hell of a lot more likely to respect you than Tandy. And if it doesn't work out, you can still preserve the business so that if Tandy decides she doesn't want the responsibility, she'll get a fair value in a buy-out to be able to do whatever it is she really wants."

Adrienne wrinkled her nose again at the 'whatever it is she really wants' comment. "Fingers crossed she figures out what that is, then." She shrugged as she sipped her beer. "Because right now she seems to change her mind every week. I know it's all the rage now for people to take a lot longer than they used to to figure out what they really want out of life, but knowing it and understanding it aren't meshing for me," she admitted. "I mean, I knew when I was about nine that I wanted to take over Frost Enterprises. When Emma nabbed it out from under me when I was nineteen, I immediately knew I was going to start a modelling agency. So I guess Tandy's... waffling... worries me a little." She glanced up at the television but immediately lost interest. "How about you? Did you always know you wanted to be in law enforcement? Or were you a waffler? Or were you one of those kids who wanted to be a brontosaurus when you grew up?" she teased.

"I was going to be the starting center fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays AND the starting forward for the Leafs. Then I hit a baseball two kilometres into Lake Ontario and was quasi-drafted into Gamma Flight." He said easily. "At that point, my options were to take a track like my old man and Pete or go in the other direction. And like any good fifteen year old boy with abandonment issues, I went as a in the opposite direction from my father that I could. Getting back to Tandy, make it a contract. Give her, I don't know, three years where you'll assume control. At the end of those three years, you take your cut of the profits and Tandy can either assign a new boss to represent her, take it over herself, or sell out her shares and do what she wants with the money."

"Well, of course there'll be a contract," Adrienne grinned. "I want to put Meridian Enterprises to good use. Be professional and shit. Not to mention try to raise the profile of Meridian so this will lead to more contracts. And I don't mind having control for three years," she carried on, so happy to talk business she completely forgot they were in an incredibly crowded bar and not sitting around a boardroom table, "but I'd most likely give us both options to reevaluate once per year in case she wants to sell or turf me and take over herself. Maybe once every six months." She was elbowed again and was forced to remember that this wasn't a boardroom. "Eighteen's supposed to be a big year for birthday presents, right? I don't know what I should get Tandy. What did you get? Except if it was sex, don't tell me. Also, center fielder? Really? With your nimble hands I'm surprised you didn't want to be a short stop," she smirked.

Garrison shook his head. He had to admit, reminding Adrienne of the proclivity of horny teenagers got the best reactions from her. Especially considering her own remarkable sex drive. "At eighteen, I was training in the Arctic. Later, my mother bought me a new hockey jersey and my sister got me a card and accidentally left dirty texts to her boyfriend on the phone I lent her while I was away. What did you get at eighteen?"

Adrienne chuckled at his description of Vikks's present. If things didn't work out with her and Garrison, she was bound and bent she'd pursue Vikks, because that woman was a mad genius. "Eighteen? I believe I got a car and a week-long holiday with the family... in San Tropez. The car was the latest, top-of-the-line European convertible. And the 'holiday' in San Tropez, which was code for 'party', boasted the cream of American and European society, not to mention a stable of b-list celebrities." She drained the rest of her pint and smirked ruefully at him. "Of course, they failed to go through the import channels for bringing a right-hand-drive car into the States. And even if they had, I didn't have a licence until my senior year of college. And they booked the holiday for a week I was contracted to work in Tokyo. But the pictures of the party are lovely. Or, I'm sure they would have been if they'd sent me any," she shrugged.

"But I'm not getting Tandy a week-long party for her birthday," she added with a wrinkle of her nose. "And she already has a car. And I don't think she'd be too excited with a hockey jersey. And if anyone gives her dirty texts for her birthday I'm hunting them down, castrating them, setting them on fire, putting the fire out with a fire ax, and drinking until I have no recollection of anyone named Tandy. What were you training for in the Arctic?" she asked, overcome by curiosity. "How to ride a seal?"

"Cold weather survival training. It was... boring. And cold. Thus, living up to the description." Kane shook his head. He knew that Adrienne's family history was fucked up, but it only became real with her little asides of an utterly warped upbringing. "I'm pretty sure she'll love whatever it is you get her."

"Maybe I'll get her some jewelry," Adrienne mused, playing with the St. Barbara medallion around her neck. "Maybe I should have asked what Vikks got for her eighteenth birthday instead of you," she realized. "What did Vikks get? Also, I thought growing up in Canada pretty much was cold weather survival training. Why do you need to go someplace colder?" She winced as a loud chorus of booing rose up from the patrons of Harry's. Canada had scored.

"Huh?" Kane's eyes were glued to the screen, as Benn deflected the puck past Quick for the goal. "Yes! Gotta let your eyes float, Quick!"

"I said," Adrienne repeated, rolling her eyes at him, "what did Vikks get for her eighteenth birthday?"

"Couple of books. Necklace from my mother." Kane said, thinking back. That had been the year that his mother had died.

Adrienne nodded as she mused on his answer. "Okay, yeah. I think I'll definitely get her some jewelry." She was already bored with this game and his attention towards it. "Do you think you'll get time off to go to Florida next month?" she asked in an attempt to engage him in something other than hockey.

"Shouldn't be a problem. I'm basically paperwork guy right now. So it's not like there's any investigations it would interrupt."

Adrienne's eyes widened. "Wow, you're still getting shat on because of their skewed perception of what happened after Aikins? And I thought models were petty," she scoffed. "Even Fred hasn't come around yet?"

"Cops don't like the idea that someone got away with murder. Especially when the victim was another law enforcement professional. Doesn't help that Brand is pretty much considered the devil in the office, and they are convinced that my hearing getting quashed was quid pro quo for nailing her while we were partners. It's not that petty when you think about it." Kane shrugged. His troubles on the job simply had to be waited out.

She narrowed her eyes at him in disapproval of his taking the side of the people who were persecuting him. Never mind that his ability to rationalize other peoples' points of view was one of the things she loved most about him. Or that she'd probably have the same reaction if she were in his shoes, understanding that one couldn't get far in the world going around screaming that everyone was being unfair to you or that they were all out to get you. She was his girlfriend and that entitled her to the irrational, emotional response on his behalf. Didn't it? Sure it did. "It's totally petty. They should hurry up and get the fuck over it already," she muttered, just to hammer home her loyalty to him. "Although I suppose I should see it as each day you're riding a desk is a day with a reduced chance you'll be pummeled to death, or shot, or kidnapped," she acquiesced with a slight, wry smirk.

"Being pummelled, shot and kidnapped is part of the allure of the job. Sometimes." he appreciated her unquestioning support. It didn't change the situation that he was in, but it made him far more comfortable living with it day to day.

Adrienne rolled her eyes at him again, but this time she was smiling while she did. She needed to pretend he meant it as a joke. "Well, at least going to Florida won't be a problem for you. Now we'll just have to see if it'll be a problem for me." She waved for another drink. "I wish I knew why the hell is the school's spring break isn't until April," she grumbled. "Still, I suppose it'll give some poor, starving substitute a week of work. Maybe that's why Xavier did it." She poked him in the ribs teasingly. "Or maybe you said something to him to ensure that it would just be the two of us, since I'm not letting Tandy miss a week of school in March when she gets Spring Break in April?"

"I did nothing in specific. I merely considering the potential opportunities it would raise. Although, we will need to find a different motel. They've gotten tired of replacing bed frames at the old Super 8."

"Maybe we should donate whatever type of bed frames they use at the mansion to the hotel," Adrienne suggested. "Seems like a good investment, since I know how much you love Super 8. Or," she suggested casually, eyes brightening in realization, "I could get us our own place down there. Rent it out the rest of the year. I don't have any real estate at all right now." She'd sold her Boston house when her assets had been frozen, and her New York office with the penthouse had, of course, gone with the sale of 64 Square. She'd decided against buying an office with living quarters in New York when she'd created Meridian, and while the idea wasn't completely off the table for the future, it would most likely be many years before she bought property in New York City again. But Florida might be an interesting idea.

"Get a house in Florida? Isn't that like commitment?" He teased her.

"You have a fear of commitment to the Jays?" Adrienne teased back, eyebrow raised. "I guess I don't blame you. They are really high maintenance. And their house is a dump. They only know how to cook hot dogs. And they'll break your heart every time you think you're falling in love with them. And just between you and me," she said in a conspiratorial whisper, "I think they waste all their talent and they're not really going anywhere in life." She continued on in her regular tone. "Maybe you should dump them and date another team. See if another team can get you to commit."

"You know, you could be serious for once..." Kane shook his head. "Or, you know, likely not. The problem is that Fort Myers and Dunedin are a couple of hours away from each other."

"There are places loosely classified as civilization in between the two, you know," she shrugged. "Sarasota. Bradenton. Venice. It's not Italy, but I wouldn't have to tell anyone if I got a place in Venice that it was the Florida one, not the Italy one," she mused.
"Wait, now you want to live in Venice? Italy has terrible baseball."