Garrison and Adrienne - Shark Mode

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Garrison successfully gets Adrienne to slow down and stop hating herself for being sad.

Adrienne wasn't sure if this time of night could be classified as ridiculously late or ridiculously early. In fact, was it night at all? Or was it technically day? She had no idea. All she knew was that the lights were off when she let herself into Garrison's suite, dropping her gym bag out of the doorway. Unable to sleep, she'd gotten out of bed when she was certain Garrison was asleep, made a couple calls to Hong Kong and had then hit the gym, working on the speed bag and then doing laps until her eyes went bleary with exhaustion and her arms and legs felt like lead.

Sinking onto the couch, she pulled her laptop onto her lap, the orange cat raising its head from the ball it was curled up in on the couch. Though her body was exhausted, her mind was still too uneasy to sleep. If she stopped going, she'd start thinking about Tandy, or Jean, or Wanda, or something unpleasant. That was unacceptable right now. She'd had enough of that the first day. But that day was over, and it was time to move on and forget about all the people who were gone.

The laptop booted up with its trademark chime, incredibly loud and bright in the stillness of the dark suite. Surprised by the fact that she'd left the thing on full volume, she gave a start and it crashed to the coffee table, hitting the edge and tumbling to the floor loudly. Shit!" Adrienne cried out before she realized that she'd probably just made things a million times worse.

"I'm awake, you know. You don't need to destroy your laptop to do it." Kane said wryly, not moving from where he was sprawled in bed. Although normally Kane's heightened abilities didn't require more than a few hours sleep a night, he'd woken up with a weariness that caused his bones to ache. So he'd taken to bed early after writing a long list of things that he needed to look into. The sheer alien feeling amidst all these familiar elements was disorienting at the very least.

"Sorry," she called out. "Go back to sleep. As much as your ego desires it, I actually didn't wake you up on purpose," she added with a roll of her eyes and a smirk to herself.

"Nah, I'm awake now." Kane swung out of bed and padded into the room with her. "What are you doing up?"

Adrienne shrugged, picking up the laptop and putting it on the coffee table. "I can't sleep. I mean, I don't want to. I need to keep busy."

"You know, in all of history, no one has ever successfully kicked the sleep addiction. I mean, I've heard of people going five, even six days without it but eventually that damned sleep monkey on their back wins." He dropped down on the couch beside her. Rooney was nosing around the top of the couch, wondering why they'd disturbed his sleep. It had been oddly reassuring to see the cat although Kane couldn't see a little thing like the Dark Phoenix stopping him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing new to talk about," Adrienne shrugged. She almost sounded guilty, as if she wished she had something new to tell about what was upsetting her. "Jean's dead. Wanda's dead. Tandy's dead. Rogue doesn't remember me. And there are strangers running around who look eerily similar to the people we knew, but who are completely different people. I have a veritable empire of agents, fashion designers, and PR departments at my command, but I don't feel like I earned it. I work for X-Factor, but with a person I don't remember ever meeting. And I went to fucking Yale. Oh! Wait! I did find out something new to tell you today!" she added with sarcastic enthusiasm. "I apparently never hired anyone to kill Steven. So, there. There's something new we can talk about."

"Running yourself into the ground doesn't help any of those things, babe." Kane said, although it was sympathetically. He had an email from Vikks and his father on his laptop, but for all he knew, his mother might be alive. It was on his list. "I know its crazy but your business and X-Factor and all of that is your life. Good or bad, this is what we got. And we still have each other."

"Yeah." She pulled her knees up to her chest defensively, sinking back into the couch. "Believe me, if you forgot me or were replaced by a copy, I'd... do something very unpleasant to you. Or myself. I'm not... I'm not unhappy that both of us are... okay. And that we're together. Don't think that," she pleaded. "But it's just... so many people are dead. People I care about. People I never wanted to care about. Just like... so many times now. It just keeps happening. So sometimes it just seems like it's easier if I don't give a shit about anyone and focus on... keeping moving."

"Of course it would be easier to not care. Then it wouldn't hurt. But it wouldn't be you." He shifted on the couch as Rooney walked behind his head and settled down. "I hate to tell you babe, but the cold-hearted mega bitch you used to pride yourself on being is gone. All of the pain is part of the risk of having friends, people who care about you, and even me."

"Sometimes I hate being me," Adrienne mumbled, unconsciously petting the cat behind Garrison's head. "I miss the mega-bitch. I hate that Emma got the diamond shell in the family and I got the powers where everything I touch fucks with my head. What if you just hit me over the head so I can forget the last ten years?"

"Nah. Because then you wouldn't know me and you'd forget that little trick you do with your hips for me." Garrison said, although his tone was light, he was obviously taking her very seriously.

"Damn. That would be a life not worth living." She booted up her computer, still unable to be idle. "I don't want to talk about me anymore. How about we talk about you? Have you heard from Vikks? Or your father? Does Toronto still have a baseball team in this universe?"

"I heard from Vikks. No real change there, it seems. But none of my Department H elements mention Alpha Flight at all. Not even on a google search."

Relieved that Vikks was okay and happy to have something besides her own emotional turmoil to focus on, Adrienne launched with both feet into Garrison's. "Wow. Really? Did you want me to use my powers on something to try to figure out what's going on with it? I could Read the Canadian White House or something? Wait, do you have one of those up there? Will you hurt me if I ask if it's in an igloo?" she joked.

"Nah. I'm going to make some calls tomorrow and likely take a trip up, even if just to see Vikks and make sure she's alright." Kane sighed. "I also need to go into the office and talk to Duncan. Find out what my status at the Bureau is right now."

"Duncan's here?" Adrienne was pleased. "And he knows who you are? That's fantastic. And can I go with you?" She stopped petting the cat and met Kane's gaze. "Sorry. That sounded more clingy than I expected. But you tend to get injured when I'm not around and I'm... I'd just rather go with you right now. If that's okay?"

"I'd like nothing better than that. Call it crazy, but being away from you after having everyone disappear? Nah, I'm happy to keep you close right now."

Adrienne shifted closer to him and put her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, ditto. Well, to be honest, I mostly just want poutine. But knowing where you are and what you're getting up to at all times is pretty important right now."

"Tell you what? Why don't you come to bed with me? Then you'll know exactly what I'm getting up to and maybe get a bit of proper sleep afterward."

"You really think you can wear me out when I'm in my shark mode? As in, don't stop moving or you die? Or in my case, wish you were dead out of embarrassment for losing your shit at what will most likely be an inopportune time?" Adrienne asked, raising an eyebrow gamely. "That sounds like a challenge."

"If that's the case, I can think of worse ways to go out."