Log: Marie-Ange and Laurie

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Marie-Ange and Laurie hang out after she's kicked out of Medlab - Marie-Ange has some timely advice for Laurie.






Laurie kicked as quietly as she could against the bottom of Marie-Ange's door given that her hand was full of the bag containing two nice bottles of wine and a few 'explosions and cute guys in various states of undress' style movies.

She'd messaged Marie-Ange a few minutes before she turned up at her and Amanda's apartment, figuring that the other woman should be home. She'd finished her scheduled time down in Medlab - something Amelia had initiated given Laurie's often 'endurance styled' attitude to research sessions and lack of focus on things like health and human contact.

She was still too keyed up to do anything however, and needed human company as well as relaxation.

The door rattled, then jerked itself open in little stutter steps, until a lime-green six-legged bat-winged thing hopped through the opening and then pushed it open the rest of the way.

"In the kitchen not burning food!" Marie-Ange called. "I have been instructed to feed you, so you get sandwiches." The imp bounced in front of Laurie, like it was trying to lead her towards the kitchen. "But good sandwiches, and potato salad, and ..." her voice trailed off for a moment. "... and fruit. Who put fruit in my crisper?"

"Is Amanda an eater of fruit?" Laurie asked, following the imp toward the kitchen with only a small feeling of unreality. She'd seen the end of the world, what could an animated, solid image do to her sense of strange? "Wade seems more the type to use fruit as target practice then eat it. I brought you some good wine, just in case we end up drinking all the wine you currently have. It's been a day for all the wine, I think. I assume Doug was behind the request that I be fed? Or, maybe CeCe? She's sneaky that way. Potato salad is great on fresh bread rolls by the way, or so I've been told by reputable sources that are not merely my stomach."

"Amanda." Marie-Ange said, pointing to the well-stocked kitchen. "Amanda eats everything. But yes, the fruit could be hers. But we tend to share groceries, because if I buy extra, then she cooks and you do not want me to cook anything hot. Wade also eats fruit." She set a plate down in front of Laurie and waved at it. "I have been given very specific instructions about feeding you. I intend to ignore all of them, and let you eat a hot fudge sundae and watch Disney movies, and hopefully get fired as a babysitter." At that, the imp turned purple, sat down, and licked it's own eye. "But the only Disney movie you get is Tangled, and I may not have ice cream. I have wine gelato instead."

"It could be noted that since I love the movie Tangled, and am intrigued by the idea of wine gelato, that I don't believe anything has been lost in your plan." Laurie replied, eying the imp somewhat dubiously as it began to stare at her. "Considering I am an adult and capable of feeding myself, I don't particularly need a babysitter. Still, the care behind the request is well meant and I'm grateful for it. How about I just tell them that you were horrible, and I made myself sick on ice cream?" Laurie took a bite of the sandwich and made muffled noises of contentment as she chewed.

"Yes, I like this." Marie-Ange agreed. "And then no one will force me to point out that some of the people asking me to make sure you eat are hypocrites who also forget to eat." She finished a second sandwich, and then dug through a wire bin atop the refrigerator for crisps. "You can shame them by bringing them lunch later. If you wear Doug's curry-lad shirt he would probably think it was cute. Do you want regular crisps or.. oh, ketchup ones. Oh these are definitely Wade's."

"I think this is a perfect plan, especially if I do my hair up in pigtails for extra cuteness factor, although I may need to ask your help in that particular endeavor. I never knew how reliant I was on having two working arms until I had to do everything with just one," Laurie noted, having finished chewing. She placed her sandwich back on it's plate and leaned back slightly, a wry smile on her face. "There's only so much knowledge I can cram into my head in any one sitting, no matter how brilliant I am. I am beyond envious of Doug and Forge and their ability to process so much at once. It's going to take me months, maybe even a full year to develop a working prototype for my new arm."

She shook her head, rolling her eyes at herself and picked up her sandwich again to take another bite. Now was not the time to be maudlin.

"Laurie. You know we could ask Emma to assist you. She has an entire company at her disposal. I am sure she knows people who are working on that very thing." Marie-Ange was suddenly serious. "Her company funded an entire lower body prosthesis once. She has not lost that knowledge. You do not have to do all of this alone, and if you run yourself ragged trying to do so, then what good is that?"

Laurie paused before swallowing the bite of sandwich she'd been chewing, and then placed the remaining amount back on her plate. She hadn't honestly even considered asking anyone for help, too sure that they would take it out of her hands in an effort to 'help' and thus leaving her with a prosthetic that she had no part of. If there was any better way toward making her feel a stranger to her own body, she didn't know it. But...Emma had helped someone previously, surely she should trust the people around her by now.

"Do you think if I asked...Do you think they'd let me help design it? I have so many ideas, and I wanted to make it mine. I didn't want to just be given something that had no connection."

"Haroun helped, with his own legs." Marie-Ange said. "And designed his own rehabilitation program." She put the bag of crisps down and sat down at the little table. "Ask Doug. As soon as he was awake, he and Kitty and Forge had Haroun tell them what he needed. Not all of it was even essential." And the embarrassment from a teenaged Doug Ramsey at having to write code for a bladder - for intestines - for a penis - had resonated so strongly that it was much of what Marie-Ange remembered from the situation, years later. "You do not need to be a computer programmer and an artist and a medical engineer all at once."

Laurie pushed at her sandwich for a moment, thinking deeply about what Marie-Ange had said, and finding no fault with any of it. It was good advice, and even though she was scared of...What exactly was she scared of? Being seen as weak? Perhaps, or maybe just afraid of owing something to someone. Not that that would be what this was, she knew all of them and it wasn't weakness to rely on people you knew to help you, surely.

"I have a problem asking for help," Laurie replied wryly. "Possibly why Doug worries about me so much when I look like I'm not dealing with things - not that he's wrong, I don't deal with things. But, I'll e-mail Emma and ask her what she can do. These are good, you know. Cooking isn't always about putting things on the stove and making sure they don't burn."

"Laurie if you tell anyone I can make sandwiches, they will expect me to, and then no one will bring me food anymore." Marie-Ange said, so sternly - and with a tiny sly smile. "So I will have to kill you if you do that. You are going to tell everyone I gave you wine ice cream, and microwave rice."

"I believe I can do that," Laurie replied, deeply amused at Marie-Ange's subterfuge. "Now, which movie would you like? I have Channing Tatum, Vin Diesel or some of Arthur's work."

The expression on Marie-Ange's face was equal parts disbelief and calculation. "You can pick, since you are the guest. But." She raised a finger. "First you have to email Emma, and CC Doug. Otherwise I am going to do it and mine will be much less nice and I won't share my gelato with you."

"Why Marie-Ange, it's almost as if you know me and my overwhelming need to control every part of my life," Laurie said, hand against her chest as if she'd suddenly channeled as grand Southern lady. "If I let you see me hit send, will that be good enough? Also, Vin Diesel and Fast and Furious, all of the pretty men and fast cars and only a semi-literate plot to distract from both."

Laurie pulled out her phone and started to thumb a mail to both Emma and Doug, pausing to turn the phone around so Marie-Ange could see the body of the message.

"How does that look?"

"As long as it gets sent, I am happy to share the gelato. White, red or both?" Marie-Ange paused. "No, never mind. Both. There are too many of those car movies to not have both."

"Both? Both is good."

Laurie hit the send button on her phone before pulling out the first Fast and Furious movie and placing it in Marie-Ange's blue-ray player.

"Get ready for awesomeness on a scale little before seen in such bad movies."