Jean, Matt, and Warren: Tuesday Afternoon (Backdated)

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Jean meets Matt (and Warren's assistant) while waiting for Warren.



It still felt odd to Jean to come to Warren's company after going there in the first place for less than honorable reasons. But that had passed, and now she was meeting Warren for lunch. To see WI during the day, abuzz with activity, was a whole other animal. Stepping off the elevator, Jean approached Warren's office.

"Hello," she said with a smile to the woman behind the desk. "I'm Jean. I'm here to see Warren?"

The blonde didn't bother looking up from the document she was working on. "Do you have an appointment? Mr. Worthington is a very busy man."

Jean nodded. "I should be his 12:00. We're supposed to be having lunch," she said. If she wasn't she could grab a hotdog and wander around window shopping. Warren was a good businessman but not the best with his memory.

This was his 12:00? Jolene stopped working suddenly, and moved to her calendar. "Dr. Grey, I presume?" Before waiting for confirmation, Jolene snapped back to work, fingers clacking away on the keyboard. "His morning meeting hasn't finished yet. I anticipate it being another half hour at least. You can wait."

Though the woman's tone was pleasant enough, Jean sensed a touch of something else behind it. "Alright," she said. Business was business. She could be patient.

Jolene sighed again. Was this woman dense? "Not here. This is where we do business. You can sit there," she motioned to a room through a door. "That is where people wait.". She gave her a tight smile. "I'll let you know when Mr. Worthington is free."

Jean smiled back, with about as warmth as the woman herself gave her. "Perhaps if you told me that before I sat down I could have saved you the trouble. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to interfere with you doing your business," she said. She tried to give people the benefit of the doubt but this woman was already rubbing her the wrong way.

Jolene gave her a cold look. "I'm glad you understand. I thought I'd have to explain it further."

The elevator dinged in time for Matt to overhear the end of the conversation, "I assume Mr. Worthington is running late?" he asked Jolene. He had become a steady visitor over the past few weeks for various reasons so his secretary was used to him. That did not stop her from being less of a bitch to him than to anyone else though.

All these people thinking they could waltz here without appointments,‎ Jolene thought. Sue, at least, was of the same station in life and therefore had the right to presume things. "Yes, Matt ," she responded. "He is. This is a business. Work needs to be done and Mr. Worthington has a very tight schedule. He won't be free for at least another fifteen minutes. Maybe even a half hour. I'd reschedule, if I were you," Jolene said to Jean.

"All work and no play makes people turn into you," Matt replied easily, turning to Jean, "You want to grab a cup of coffee while you wait for him?" he suggested, subtly turning so that she would follow, "There's a little coffee kiosk a couple floors down and they make decent stuff."

Gladly taking the chance to leave the situation before it could potentially get any worse, Jean went with Matt. "Who am I to say no to decent coffee?" she said.

Once they got further away and out of earshot, Jean laughed. "Well, she's delightful."

"Right?" Matt laughed, amused. "And today is one of her more pleasant days. She's actually really amazing at her job, attitude aside," which is how she kept her job. "I'm Matt by the way. So you're not getting coffee with a total stranger."

"She seems very good," Jean allowed, then laughed again, shaking her head. "I just don't get the sense that she likes me very much." If emotions could have actual physical manifestations she would have probably been dead by now.

She smiled broader. "I'm Jean. Warren and I were supposed to be having lunch."

"She doesn't like anyone very much.in my experience, except maybe Warren," and even that was doubtful. "Jean. Jean. Wait. I know that name...he was drunk texting you!"

Jean slowed, quirking an eyebrow. "I knew I felt my ears burning," she said with a smirk. She trusted, or at least hoped, that Warren was discrete about the reason why he was drunk texting her. She hadn't been attacked or killed by hired goons yet so she had a feeling she was safe.

"We've since reconciled, obviously."

"Obviously," Matt agreed, cane hitting the edge of the coffee kiosk as they reached it. "Which is probably a good thing. Anyone who gets a guy so wound up he drunk texts clearly is important to him," he was speaking from experience on that one.

The smell of coffee had reached Jean long before they made it to the kiosk, making her sleepy brain perk up in anticipation of caffeine. She glanced down at the observation from Matt, smiling softly.

"Yeah," she said. It was a relationship the two of them were still trying to figure out. She hadn't been with someone in so long that she had almost forgotten how things went.

"He's a good guy under all the bravado."

"Yeah, he is," Matt agreed, wondering if she knew of Warren's nighttime hobby and friends. He didn't ask though and instead ordered a hot apple cider for himself. There was such a thing as too much coffee. "I've got hers, too," he told the barista, pulling out his wallet.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Jean said, sincerely, then glanced to the barista. "Can I have a London Fog?" Which was basically earl grey with steamed milk and vanilla syrup. It was later in the afternoon and she wasn't horribly tired so tea would take the edge off. She saved coffee for when she was particularly floundering.

The barista set to work, and Jean turned back to Matt. "Should we find a table?"

"That's on you," Matt reached up with his free hand and placed it on her shoulder so she could guide him, "I usually take my drink back to my desk. What do you do then? For work, I mean."

Leading the two of them to a close by table, Jean nodded to a chair. "There's a chair directly front of you," she said, waiting for him to sit before she took a seat herself.

"I'm a doctor. I just got a job with Claremont Medical Center in Manhattan. My specialization is general surgery but I'm working on a fellowship in general medicine, specializing in aftercare. And yourself? I take it you work here."

Taking a seat and being himself arranged, Matt nodded, "Sounds interesting," he commented, wondering how open she might be to things offbook. He'd been lucky enough that he hadn't been injured too severely in his nighttime shenanigans, but there was always that risk. "I'm a lawyer. Nothing interesting. Doctor though sounds like it might be."

"Oh yeah, It can be," Jean said with a laugh. "Thankfully not all the time. Just enough to be unpredictable."

She rested her chin in her hand. "So do you do tax law? Or liability?"

"Defense, usually," Matt answered, he wanted to do criminal defense, but he hasn't been able to pass up the opportunity to work for Worthington Industries. "But I've been doing more general practice things here, getting established," a firm like this required many lawyers with different specialties. "So then...what's one of your most interesting surgeries?"

Pausing for a few moments to think, Jean leaned back and finally nodded. "Well, there was a guy who got stabbed in the chest by a stake because a woman who thought he was a vampire. He wasn't. Luckily she was a horrible shot and only managed to nick his lung and the wall of his heart. Any worse and he would have had to have had a transplant."

That made for an awkward relationship, "Why did she think he was a vampire?" Matt asked, curious. It was hard to say that vampires didn't exist when mutants did.

"She had taken a liberal amount of LSD," Jean said, more casually than she anticipated after coming back with their orders. "She also thought I was the reincarnation of Joan of Arc and that she could talk to snails. She said she never saw the guy during the day so that's why she stabbed him. He was a bartender for a club she went to. She slept off her episode in our hospital's psychiatric ward under close supervision then got charged with temporary insanity."

"That would do it," Matt had to agree. That stuff was awful, but she was lucky that was all she got. "Damn. See, this is why lawyering is boring. I don't get clients who talk to snails. Definitely should have become a doctor," his father had wanted him to either be a doctor or a lawyer and with being blind, a lawyer was much more feasible. Plus, he liked it.

"Like you asked, it was one of my most interesting surgeries. Mostly it's the guy who stabbed himself with a sword or the lady that shot her husband with a nailgun because he was cheating on her," she rested her chin in her hand, then grinned broadly.

"Ah who am I kidding? Medicine is awesome."

Pointing at her with his cup, Matt made a solemn pronouncement, "You suck."

Jean smiled at Matt sweetly, taking a sip of her tea. "Jealousy is not a good look for you."

Laughing, Matt set his cup down and checked his watch with two fingers, "Let's give it another 5 or so minutes before going back upstairs? And I am pretty sure that no one would want me as their doctor. Ever."

"Everyone has their own special gifts," Jean mused. "Like I don't think I'd be the type to practice law. What made you want to become a lawyer?"

She took another drink. "And 5 minutes sounds good. I'm sure Jolene's watching the door like a hawk."

"I failed the MCAT," Matt stated with a straight face, then grinned, "I saw the justice system up close in different ways growing up and I saw it work for people and against people. I want to help people who need it most. Getting up close and personal with the system is a good way to do it. I need more experience, but my friend and I want to open our own firm in time."

"Sounds ambitious. I wish you the best of luck," Jean said, taking off the lid to her cup. There was some left and she preferred drinking it open so she could smell the aroma of earl grey.

"So were you...up close and personal because of yourself or someone else, if you don't mind my asking? I admire people who are able to take what life gives them and make something better from it."

"Oh, see now that takes more than 5 minutes," Matt warned, "but, digest version. My dad did what he could to support us, which...sometimes put him on the wrong side of the legal system. I ended up in CPS after he died and my uncle's ended up with guardianship. Also, when I lost my sight, we sued and won the lawsuit. So. Lots of different ways, but here I am."

Jean nodded thoughtfully. "It sounds like it. I'm sorry about your father." She was curious how he'd lost his sight but figured she'd already pried enough.

"Thanks, it was a while ago and I've got two awesome uncle's and brother now, so it...doesn't balance, but it's good," he wished his dad was still around, but he loved his uncles and brother and wouldn't've had them if his dad was around so it was a difficult thing to choose. "Anyways. You ready to head up?" Matt asked finishing his own drink.

"Well this is a lovely surprise," Warren called out as he approached the kiosk, hands in his pockets. "Jolene told me you weren't able to wait," he said to Jean, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Matt. Always a pleasure." He patted the other man on the shoulder, forgoing his customary handshake. "Were you guys finishing up, or can I join you? I seem to have some free time."

"We were enjoying some coffee while I waited, since your assistant said you'd be a half an hour," Jean said, then glanced to Matt. "I am a bit hungry. Warren and I were about to go to lunch. Would you mind if Matt joined us? He was keeping me company....and I think he actually needed to talk to you about something, right?" He had been there to see him as well.

Warren nodded. "Absolutely. Are you on lunch now, Matt?"

"I don't want to be the third wheel and it wasn't that important," Matt declined. He had wanted to ask Warren about Xavier's things and didn't want to do so in front of Jean. "You two enjoy and I'll catch you later."

"I insist." Warren leaned forward, even though he knew Matt's hearing was top notch. "Jean is the whole reason why I've been going to Westchester so much," he said vaguely. "She introduced me to everyone."

Oh. Oh. OH!. "Well, if you insist," Matt agreed, getting up and unfolding his cane, "I went to Westchester for the first time the other day. Really enjoyed it," he hoped Jean understood his meaning.

Matt worked at WI. And he was potentially a mutant. This was....huh. Jean liked to be pleasantly surprised.

"I'm glad," she said with a grin, tossing her empty cup in the trash before wrapping her arm around Warren's. "It's a good place. Will you be visiting again?"

She suddenly found herself curious what Matt's ability was. If he had one. She didn't want to presume. He could have just been a human ally.

"Oh, definitely," Matt agreed, "I've requested to telecommute one day a week so I can take long weekends there, get to know people," because a mutant haven? Awesome. Also, he wanted to keep tabs on Miles and Warren, make sure everything was still on the up-and-up. Clint would be all over him if he got lax and walked into something stupid. Warren was popular as Matt placed his hand on the man's other shoulder so he could be guided. "I've only met Scott so far."

Jean nodded. "He seems nice," she said. A little aloof, mysterious. She found herself wanting to get to know him better. Unravel the mystery.

"I've worked with the place's founder for a very long time. I knew him before I knew everyone else. If you ever get a chance to meet him I recommend it."

Warren nodded towards the door,ready to guide Matt as necessary. "Fantastic. There's reservations at a lovely bistro down the street. I think we could all use some good food and good conversation. Shall we?"