Jean and Georgia (NPC): Friday Afternoon

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Jean runs into an old friend from college, who has a request for her.




It was a crisp, beautiful day, thought Georgia Keene. Sun shining, birds singing and all that crap. And here she was, at a ridiculously named place where she could get the best damn hot dogs and shakes in the city.

She'd gotten there a bit early on purpose so she could the information through her head one last time.

The facts were this:
1) Worthington Industries had recently delved into the security sector by providing capital to Biotech, a biosecurity company.

2) Her cousin, Timothy, was currently working at WI as a contract lawyer and had seen something strange in the contract between the companies. He'd also heard from a secretary that Warren Worthington Jr. was anti-mutant, and that he'd been trying to use the MRA to his advantage.

3) Rumours in the underground mutant networks were filled with stories of mutant killing machines, and government authorized purges, all created via the investment from WI.

No matter where she looked, all the pieces pointed towards WI. It didn't look good.

She'd had this information for a few weeks now,mulling it over and trying to determine what to do with it.

One day, during a particularly boring teleconference, she'd stumbled onto the society page and was surprised to see Jean Grey looking rather cozy with Warren Worthington the third. Seriously, who named their kid 'Third'? The idea came to mind after a few days, so she'd sent Jean a message, stating that she saw she was in town and she wanted to have lunch.

She'd known Jean for a while, and was happy to keep her informed on mutant related politics. They'd met in university when Georgia's pheromone powers had started an orgy in her residence hall.

Three babies were born because of that. They'd managed to stay in touch,and now, here she was, waiting for Jean.

Jean slipped off her sunglasses as she entered the eatery. The fact that it was called Grays Papaya was not lost on her. She felt a sense of kinship with the place. It was somewhere she went a lot in undergrad: fast and cheap. Coming back called up a certain nostalgia.

She spotted Georgia after a moment of scanning the crowd, then waved, and came to sit down beside her.

"Hey G," she said, opening her arms in invitation for a hug.

"How goes it?"

Georgia returned the hug happily. "It goes, J. You're looking good by the way. Saw the picture in the paper. Warren Worthington?" She gave Jean an elbow to the side. "Remember me at your wedding, 'kay? I demand front row seats."

Jean blinked. "What picture?" she said. It wouldn't help her and her job with X-Corps. Luckily most of the rescues recently had been in Europe. That's what she got for not reading the paper.

"And whoa..." she added, holding up her hands. "I just met the guy. He's nice but...definitely not a one woman, settle down with 2.5 kids kind of person, y'know?"

Oh that wasn't what she wanted to hear. She'd thought Jean had more of an in than that. Georgia raised an eyebrow. "You mean you didn't see it?". She raised a finger. "Hold on, I took a picture "

Taking out her phone, she scrolled through her camera roll before stopping and showing Jean. The picture showed them before an abstract painting, heads close together as they looked at the picture. "See? Marriage is written all over this."

"Sometimes I think your pheromones effect your own brain," Jean mused with a smirk, squinting at the picture.

"How did you know that was me? I can barely tell that's me."

"Your hair is so red, even astronauts can see it." Georgia turned her head and looked at the line. "Listen, let's get some grub and chat. I have something I need to run by you since you know Mr. Wonderful and all."

"I can't help it if I was born with the hair of that chick from Brave. It just happened," Jean said, resting her elbow on the table as she eyed the menu, then Georgia herself.

"I just met him. I don't think I'm going to be able to convince him to donate money or a kidney or something." She wasn't going to mention the fact that they were going to go on a date. That'd get her riled up.

Georgia couldn't wait too much longer. "Look, there's stuff I want to tell you about. Stuff you should look deep within for." She raised her eyebrow again. If Jean could get the gist if the situation, Georgia had papers with her to cement the deal. Jean paused, any bits of humor she had quickly melting away. "Oh," she said. That kind of within.

"Yeah, we should get our food first, and find somewhere more private." She had a feeling this sort of discussion warranted that sort of thing. "Whatever works." A little while later, Georgia was enjoying a heavenly shake, and recounting her disastrous session with the senator.

"Seriously, the man fell asleep! In the middle of a very boring meeting, mind you. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't started snoring. Are you sure you don't want to get into politics? It's very thrilling."

Jean hadn't had lunch so she'd gotten a hotdog for old time's sake to go with her own shake. It had coconut in it. She was happy.

"I like hearing about the stories, not being in them...for now, anyway. Maybe someday," she said. It would interfere with her work if she got too heavily involved in the meantime.

"As much as I like knowing about Senator Carlson's sleeping habits, I don't think that's why you called me here."

Georgia shook her head as she played with the straw. "Nope, it's not. I just feel like a turd, inviting you out to talk about work when I really do want to catch up. " She sighed and put down her drink. "I don't know how in tune you are lately in the railroad, but there's talk and it's not pleasant. I think your boyfriend is right in the middle, and not in the fun sexy sandwich kind of middle."

This had Jean's attention. She leaned forward. "What do you mean?" she said. Despite exuding copious amounts of privilege, Warren didn't seem like a bad guy. But then again, some never did. It was all about cultivating appearances.

Still, she didn't get that sense from him. Pulling out a folder of information, she handed it to Jean. "Whatever else you don't get, find another place to get it." Wink wink. The dossier included some past information regarding Biotech's projects,such as blood testing stations, and genetic mapping. All innocuous enough until added to the CEO and lead scientist's obvious anti-mutant agenda. The other pieces, such as how WI tied into it, well, that was in her mind from Timothy.

The contract between WI and Biotech clearly stated that WI was essentially a silent partner, with full veto rights on projects. The amount of money being filtered into Biotech was unbelievable, under the guise of SHIELD projects; however, looking further into the contract, SHIELD was never actually pointed out as an actual partner. Timothy couldn't find a single contract between WI and SHIELD. It was all very strange and disconcerting.

Slipping on her reading glasses from her purse, Jean was silent for a few moments as she read, any vestiges of happiness draining away, her jaw set in deep concern.

"How did you get this information?" Jean said, glancing up. "Are you sure it's real?"

Rhetorical questions to be sure. She just didn't want it to be real. She believed it was true. Anything so horrible had to be, sadly. "I have my ways." Georgia drank her shake, slowly, her leg crossed over her bottom one.

"Like I said though, nothing's 100% guaranteed, but we need to get to the bottom of it. If this is true, it's all conceptual right now. And since you do all those things you do, and since you have an in with Mr. Wonderful, I figured you're the best person for the job."

Closing the file and putting it on the table, Jean rubbed her forehead. She generally did it when she was stressed and needed to focus. Touching her temples was an old habit, a technique Charles had used with her while trying to help her control her abilities. The intent was to allow her to ground herself through finding an anchor in her five (six) senses. It soon turned into something that she used in her everyday life unconsciously.

"So I need to verify it," Jean said. This was definitely not what she had expected Georgia to want to talk about. Charles would want to know. It meant everyone with an X-gene could be at risk.

"But I'm a doctor. I'm not a spy." This was important. She didn't want to mess things up because she didn't have James Bond's skills. She could get in and rescue a mutant. She'd done it before. But the people she was usually doing that against were bad, and she wasn't pitting herself against entire anti-mutant organizations.

"That's why you're the perfect fit, J." Georgia put down her drink and turned towards Jean, sincerity in her eyes. "No one would suspect you. Warren wouldn't suspect you. You're honest and genuine, and I know this is going to be hard for you, but you're the only one who can get in. My people, we can get the tech you need to pull this off, but there's no one else. It would take too long to get someone in, and time is not something we have."

She leaned across the table, and whispered, "You're what we got, J. And we need you."

Jean smiled faintly. "That's a lot of confidence in me. I wish I could feel the same," she said. She opened up the file again, studying the data. It was raw but it painted a stark, bleak future.

Finally she looked up, letting out a breath, then nodded. "Okay. Okay. I'll do it. But I need to tell my people too. I work with them the most. And if this is as big as what you're saying then we need to be ready."

Georgia raised her hands in the air. "If your people want it, we're happy to step back. We just need to know it's being dealt with. And," she pointed out, "if we get more info, I'll pass it on." She leaned back, pushing off of the table and tilting her chair. "Good to have you back in town, by the way. We should do lunch more often."

Jean stood, reaching out to give her a hug. "I don't think it's going to be for long. I don't know," she said. Her life was up in the air at the moment.

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll see what I can do. If we run into any trouble we'll call you. But we'll definitely need the tech. Computer hacking was not one of the classes I took in college."

"Lucky you I'm fucking the right person," Georgia teased, returning the hug. "I gotta head back to the office, but you got my number now so text me." She reached for her purse and smiled. "I'll get you the tech you need asap. Peace out, J."

And with that, she joined the crowd of people leaving, rushing if she was going to make her next meeting.

Slipping the file in her messenger bag, Jean watched Georgia leave, then stared down at her half uneaten hot dog, trying to think of a time lately when things stayed steadily normal. But she was coming up short.

She thought spending time with Warren was going to be fun, just a little bit of companionship before she left. Life had other plans though. It wasn't the first time she'd ever had to shove aside any kind of chance due to her job: as a doctor, or working for the Professor. She didn't have time, she told herself. People needed her.

Jean rose, casting a look out over the people that mulled by. She couldn't let herself dwell.

Her happiness didn't matter. If one life was saved from this information then she could be happy.