Garrison and Adrienne - Spring Training

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Garrison and Adrienne undertake their springtime ritual of mocking each others' baseball teams while partaking of a game down in Florida. The subject of Tandy's modeling career also comes up.

It was hard not to feel better with baseball starting. Not quite the same as the start of the hockey season, but unlike hockey, spring training had its own rituals and charms. Garrison adjusted his cap and took a look over the field. Unfortunately, most of the Jays' he'd met as part of Alpha Flight were no longer with the team, but it was still good to watch the new kids work out the kinks.

"You started on your draft kit yet?"

Adrienne eyed him suspiciously, feet up on the still-empty chair in front of her, adjusting her own cap and her sunglasses. Coming from such harsh weather back home was causing more of an adjustment to the Florida sun than usual. But she wouldn't trade the sun-blindness for the fact she was wearing only a long-sleeved Red Sox tee and pair of jeans instead of the multiple layers she'd been wrapped up in all winter. "Was that a subtle hint that you want all your magazines back? Unfortunately, I burned them all last night," she answered with a casual shrug. It was a lie, but it was always fun to guess whether he'd believe it or not. "I was upset that the top Red Sock in all the projections was pick 63 while there were a bunch of Jays in the 30s to 50s. Couldn't be helped."

"Hey, don't punish me for your team's terrible farm system." Kane laced his hands behind his head, t-shirt stretched over his chest. "Supposed to be some rain coming in. Lots of wind."

"Ugh. Make that not happen, please." She poked him in the ribs. "You should make that not happen. I didn't leave the Second Coming of the Ice Age to deal with rain and wind. Or maybe we should ditch out on New York and go to Australia with the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks, instead. You could be a D-Backs fan in a pinch, right? And I'll masquerade as a Dodger fan?"

"We aren't ditching New York for Australia, regardless of how awesome Vin Scully is. Plus, you'd be found out as a Dodgers fan fake in minutes. Unless you decide to wear a bikini, which would show you off as a Jays fan."

Her eyes narrowed, she paused for several seconds, and then Adrienne lashed out quickly, hoping to catch him in a headlock. "You promised you'd never speak of that in public!"

Kane didn't move as she got the headlock on him, only to discover that she couldn't budge him with his superstrength. Instead, she was left holding him awkwardly and trying to move him anywhere.

"I promised no such thing. And if you were in a bikini right now, you'd be on the front page of the coverage for this game." He picked up his beer and using the back of her jeans, lifted her up far enough to take a sip before dropping her back into her headlock.

She'd pretty much known this would be the outcome of her actions, because this was pretty much always what happened, so Adrienne owned the fact that she was now pretty much just hanging around his neck and stayed like that. "That's why I wish I would have bought a condo down here," she mumbled. "Because now we're in hotels with public pools where other Jays fans might see me in the bikini and tell the Jays press office," she answered. Of course, it hadn't really made sense when she'd sobered up to buy real estate in Florida. They always spent a couple days in Dunedin and a couple in Fort Myers, so it would defeat the purpose to buy a place in one of the towns, but buying a place equidistant and having to drive over an hour each way every day to either stadium made even less sense. "I may always have a model's desire to be photographed, but I think having that tattoo photographed would mean losing my soul."

"Aw, does that mean no more showing off in public with your tiny clothes? Because I'm shallow, I rather enjoy the longing looks that every guy and some of the girls give when you're walking beside me." He punctuated the statement with a pinch of her ass.

"Well, to be fair, I think some of those longing looks are directed at you," Adrienne answered, which she was taking as a sign of how much she'd grown. "But, no, that's not what it means! What am I, dead?" She craned her neck around to look at him, but then figured it was just easier to let go of the headlock and sit in his lap. "If people ever stop being jealous of you for being with me," she smirked, "I give you permission to kill me. It just means no showing off at this hotel pool where Jays fans are lurking, just waiting to use the media to exploit me in order to promote their shitty, shitty team. Even though the Jays could definitely use the boost in publicity I'd no doubt bring," she mused.

"You think very highly of your celebrity, Ms Frost." He positioned her more comfortably on his lap and leaned back. "Oops, that's gone." There was a crack and a ball flew high and deep out to left field. Bautista started to round the bases with the home run.

Adrienne engaged in some good-natured hollering and cursing along with the other Sox fans in the stands, then carried on their conversation. "I'm a Frost. It's taken hundreds of years to hone this narcissism," she shrugged. "Although I have a theory that it's as much learned behaviour as it is breeding, since Tandy's self-confidence is coming along nicely now that she's under my evil influence. I dunno, do you feel the need to talk about yourself and show yourself off more since we've started dating?" she inquired curiously.

"Only to you."

She pretended to think about that answer for several seconds. "Yes, judges will accept that answer." She nodded, pleased, before turning her attention back to the game. "So why do you think I'd be found out as a Dodger fan fake so fast?"

"You don't have a Vin Scully tattoo. Or know Sandy Koufax's career ERA." He joked.

"Well, just get me and Amanda drunk and who knows, I could end up with a Scully tattoo," Adrienne grumbled. "And I do too know Kofax's ERA! It's..." she closed her eyes to access the Repository of Readings that existed in her mind. The clean-up efforts were nowhere near finished, but she'd been working on it with Jean and Haller whenever they had time and it was significantly improved from how it had been last year. In fact, it's improvement was what caused her to frown and open her eyes a moment later. "Crap! It's gone! Why would I throw out the Reading of that watch that was worn on a tour of Cooperstown, and yet keep the Reading of that ring that was worn all through the Hockey Hall of Fame? That makes no fucking sense! Stupid subconscious avatar cleaner-woman."

"2.76. In his last five years, his highest ERA was 2.04." Kane said quietly, watching a ball sneak by the infield defense. "Besides, I've already come to terms with you as a Red Sox fan. You start adding more teams and I'm going to get lost."

"You mean I shouldn't cover myself with tattoos for all the pro sports teams in North America and Europe? Get a Raptor on my neck? Blue Devil on my calf? Man-U crest on some side boob? Nothing like that?"

"You end up looking like an ESPN home page, we're through. Just saying." Although he didn't admit that a Leafs logo on the other side of her pelvis would be kind of hot. He was already pushing it as is.

"If I still ran a modeling agency, I might pitch that idea to ESPN," Adrienne admitted. "With temporary tattoos, of course. That might be really, really hot." She daydreamed about that while she watched the third out being made on a long fly ball. "Speaking of models, did I tell you Tandy's decided she wants to model?" she asked him conversationally.

"You okay with that? Especially considering the kinds of activities that your career led you to?"

"Not at all," she informed him, sliding out of his lap and digging around in her handbag for money. She really needed nachos. And beer. "But it's what she wants to do, and I guess I respect her more for doing it even though I do have reservations, rather than just always doing what I tell her. And, despite the fact that we both have massive trust issues when it comes to people, she's much more willing to admit when she needs help than I was at her age. And she has more people who are going to be keeping their eyes on her." More people she'll let down if she fucks up, said the voice inside her head that was still always present, warning her about letting people in. At least it was much easier to quash than it used to be. Maybe Tandy's voice would be quicker to shut up or easier to quash than her own had been at that age.

"Plus," she added, "she has the major advantage I didn't at her age. Me. Me, visiting every fashion house in the city and explaining that while I'm not there to influence their decision about whether to hire my ward or not, I'm there to make sure that if they do hire her, and have even a single thought of making her do something explicit or compromising, I'll make their lives a living and eternal Hell. I'm 'out' as a mutant now, so I figure all I have to do is explain that with my powers I can be the eyes and ears of a god-like creature it's impossible to keep secrets from, and voila. At least I can do better for her than I could do for myself."

"Don't you think she might resent your efforts? After all, you got to make the mistakes you wanted to as a model. While I don't think Tandy is a wild child in training, just think, two years from now, when she's partying with friends and the coke comes out beside the booze and suddenly she's dropped from the party because of Auntie Adrienne's threats?" Kane shrugged. He had no real problems with it, but Tandy meant a significant amount to Adrienne, and he had to be sure that she understood what her actions could lead to.

"I didn't mean her peers," Adrienne clarified, "I meant the people in power, the ones who will control her career and her future in the industry. Besides, what do I care if she resents me?" She made a face. "No, I don't mean that." His questions had made her doubt her plan, and she began to fidget. "Or maybe I do. I don't know." She sat down in her seat, all thoughts of nachos and beer gone. "I know I've always stood by the sentiment that my mistakes made me who I am. But what if that's just a bullshit line I use to try to justify what I put myself through, the idiotic mistakes I made?" She played with the medallion around her neck.

"I guess part of me does wonder what would have happened if someone had, like Emma's said, kept me from the monsters. Isn't that what people who care about you are supposed to do? Or is it better to stay completely out of it, even though I know she could be blackmailed and manipulated and chewed up and spat out by people in the industry who have been pulling the same shit for thirty years? Y'know? Her snorting a line with some friends at a party before an orgy is different to me than her doing the same thing with the editor from some national magazine who will turn around and tell her she now has to pose in nudey mags or do porn for a business partner of his or he'll leak the videos he took to the internet. I want to help her tackle that shit, but I don't know if that means to try to stop it from happening or hanging back to pick up the pieces afterwards." She chuckled wryly. "All I know for sure is I will never be known as Auntie Adrienne."

"That makes sense. Besides, something I should point out? That kind of attempted exploitation is illegal, and I happened to know most people who get a call from an FBI Field Office telling them to stop tends to lead to a lot of wet pants."

"I think maybe... no, you're right," Adrienne acquiesced. "I underestimate the FBI's scariness sometimes." And maybe she did. But mostly she just wanted to let him believe what she knew he needed to believe. No, she didn't believe the people she was afraid of would be afraid of the FBI to the degree Garrison was sure they would be. But she had enough forethought to recognize where this conversation could take them, and had hopefully managed to stop her mouth from digging her a hole she couldn't crawl out of. It could be like the Hellfire Club all over again- her trying to convince him that no one at the top of the corporate food chain was actually afraid of the FBI, him adamant that the organization he was working for could truly stop corruption and exploitation and make the world a better place. She didn't want to get into that clash with him again, knowing they were both too stubborn to have their minds changed despite their mutual respect for one another's opinions. "It certainly makes me feel better knowing I can sic the FBI on these creatures if they try anything with Tandy," she smiled. "I suppose it's just hard to think of them as inspiring pants-wetting when I know they can be so petty as to keep you benched for so long," she admitted. "But, then, I don't have to have faith in them; I just have to have faith in you, right? And I do." That, at least, was unequivocally true. She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek and resumed change-mongering in her handbag.

He noticed the hesitation but let it pass unremarked. "So, I see it's nacho time already." He passed her over a twenty. "You're never going to find anything in that bag of yours."

Adrienne made sure she took the money before she replied to him. "Maybe I can find things fine, but I'm executing a clever plan so you'll give me your money instead of me using my own," she suggested happily.

"Hey, my wallet is your wallet. Although-" He said, just as she stood up. "since you're already going with my money, I'd like another beer and a hotdog. You know, if we're doing clever plans and all that." He grinned.

"I think you may come to regret telling me that," Adrienne warned him with a smirk. "The wallet thing, I mean. Not the beer and hot dog thing. Although you may regret that, too, but if you do that's between you and your digestive system, and I don't wanna know about it."