xp_logs | Patent Pending

Warren returns to the X-Factor Investigations office and his teammates do not like what they see.

Defeat was a horrible word. The emotions it evoked, the images that came to mind....Warren hadn't slept. The guilt he was feeling over Matt's injuries had consumed him and nothing helped take it away. In fact, Warren couldn't even bring himself to use his normal coping mechanisms -- it was as if he wanted to feel this, to remember how it felt to think about no one else but himself.

It was impossible to hide the dark circles under his eyes, and the scrapes and bruises on his face from being thrown against the wall were fairly noticeable. For once in his life though, he didn't care what he looked like. This was his penance.

As per the work schedule, he was due to take over the late shift at the office. He liked being the on-call supervisor after-hours. Less time for him to get into trouble. The only thing he didn't take into consideration was that showing up at night meant all the day staff were heading home.

And of course, it had to be Adrienne, Lorna, Sue and Jess at the office -- the four people he couldn't lie to. If it was Bobbi or Arthur, well, he barely knew them. He could just smile, make a blase comment about a rough sex night, and go from there. But the other four?

Plastering a smile on his face, he walked into the office. "Look at that," he said, trying to show off. "All my favourite ladies in one room. How lucky am I?"

Adrienne glanced at him as she shot him a withering look, but then her gaze fell on him properly. She squinted at first, then put the glasses that she was using as a headband down onto her nose. "Whoa, man. You look like shit. What the fuck happened to you?"

Lorna peeked up from a file she was putting into the system and raised an eyebrow. "Looks like he got in a fight." She answered Adrienne before standing up, "I'll get the first aid kit."

Jessica watched Lorna move over to the kit, before she casually leaned back against the desk, leveling her gaze at Warren, eyebrow raised. "Alright, Warren, spill it. Tell us exactly what happened. Who the hell roughed you up?" She asked, her voice decidedly calm with only a hit of worry/concern.

"Who is to say that I was beat up," Warren responded flippantly, flashing a smile at Lorna with the medical kit. Even though Jean had done a good job the night before, he could still use some more pain meds...and probably a few bandage changes. "Maybe I fell down some stairs. Some sharp, pointy, bruise-inducing stairs. I can be clumsy you know."

"Possible," Adrienne retorted, frowning at him, "but not probable. Knowing you, I'd guess a blonde with legs up to her nipples took offense to one of your smarmier fuckvitations. Or maybe it was a brunette." She poked at a bruise on his face. "Nah, definitely a blonde."

"Heeeey," Sue piped up coming to stand next to Warren "on behalf of blonde's everywhere I," the petite blonde cocked her head to once side in thought, "don't object actually." she said given Warren an apologetic look. "Sorry but some of your pick up lines are, I can't believe they work," she told the older man as she watched Lorna flick open the case and looked down at it analytically. "You know if people keep coming here after nights out like that, I think we're gonna need a bigger medical kit."

"I don't know, Adri. Doesn't look like rough sex to me." Jessica stated, her gaze piercing. "Come on Warren, quit keeping in suspense. Are you alright?" She asked.

Warren hesitated slightly, followed by an immediate cringe. He was in a room full of people whose job is to ferret out secrets and to notice things.

He rarely hesitated. The pain meds must be making him loopy. "Don't worry about it. If you really need to fawn over someone, Matt and Miles would probably appreciate it more. Man, for being almost 16, Miles knows his stuff," Warren explained. "I was a little worried to see him get knocked around but he held his own."

"What, did you do a tag-team match at the battle league?" Adrienne asked, sounding skeptical. "With a couple kids?" Oh wait. Matt wasn't exactly a kid anymore, was he? Not this version. Oh well. He was still younger than she was, and younger than Warren, so the sentiment still stood. "Maybe you should stick to partners who are a little closer to your own age next time?"

"I think the question is, why would Warren allow a 'almost' 16 year old get knocked around? Even for the battle league, there is age limits, right?" Lorna stepped closer to Warren as if she was piercing into his soul, "What. Happened. And don't give us the work around. There is more of us than there is of you."

Jessica's worry over Warren was quickly snuffed out by his words. Her mouth turned down in a frown and she felt a hot, uncomfortable prickling fill her chest and run up her spine. She marched forward, her body slowly rising up from the ground, her brown eyes practically alight.

"Lorna's right. Why the hell were you with Miles? And why in God's name would you let him participate in something where he'd get knocked around? He's just a boy, Warren! He's one of my students! Playing dumb is one thing, but this is just asinine. Tell us everything. Slowly, coherently, and from the beginning." Jessica demanded. She'd risen to a substantial height now and was glaring down at Warren, her arms crossed over her chest and her expression just shy of murderous.

This was not going how he had expected. Three angry women....Sue didn't look that mad. Maybe he should try focusing his attention on her."We had a night out, thought we'd head over to the warehouses. Shit went down, but hey! Turns out the information you got me was right on the mark, Sue. Thanks, Sunshine."

"So let me get this straight, you asked me for some information about the potential goings on at the warehouse," she started ticking points off on her fingers, her voice completely emotionless, "then instead of coming to us about it so we could set up a surveillance plan, like oh I don't know a detective agency you decide to take your PR intern and a some lawyer from your firm there instead to get beaten around?" she asked Warren, looking up at him with an expression that was equal parts disappointed and devastated. "And that''s supposed to make me feel good that my information was on the mark. So basically you're telling me that it was my fault that you and a 16 year old kid got beaten up?" The blonde's shoulder's slumped, in the months since she'd met warren again he'd slipped into the role of a big brother and now this, "please, tell me how any of this is supposed to make me feel better?" she asked him in a small voice.

Adrienne staggered back as if physically struck. The first thing that she realized was how glad she was that she wasn't a teacher anymore. Particularly in this new universe where the students were actually trained as minors to fit into the Xavier army when they grew up. Not knowing the students, she didn't feel as much of an attachment to them and the fact that a couple idiot boys had allowed themselves to be shepherded along by Warren's... machismo or whatever the fuck it was and had gotten themselves hurt didn't push her buttons. But something else did.

"You... you took a couple kids on... on an X-Factor job? A couple kids who do not work for this agency which means they have not signed employment contracts with us which means we do not have liability for them?" Unthinking, Adrienne strode over to Warren and got into his face. "Are you a fucking moron?! Were you dropped on your fucking head as a child? What, you think when these kids' families sue us for getting hurt working on a case for this company you're just going to fucking throw money at this and make it go away?! Because that's how you handle all your fucking problems?! This could ruin us! Did you even give two shits about this business?! No, of course you didn't," she barreled on, "because you're a spoiled fucking frat boy who doesn't have the slightest idea how business works which is why you're a fucking thirty-five year-old man who still has daddy running the family business!" Throwing her hands up dismissively, she stormed off to her office and slammed the door. She didn't want to hear any more. She was going to give herself a few seconds to calm down before she murdered him, and then she was going to institute a hostile takeover and kick him out of X-Factor.

Warren sat in muted silence, taking in the scene. Sue was visibly upset, Jessica looked ready to punch him in the head and Lorna was looking at him dispassionately. And Adrienne.....well, that might be a bridge burnt so brightly, it was seen in space.

Clearing his throat, he went into damage control mode. "I'm not going to make any excuses." He stood up to go lean on the front of his desk. His head was starting to pound.

"It was inappropriate of me to do what I did yesterday. And while it's not my place to speak for Matt and Miles, all I can say is that there's more to this than I can share. That being said, I understand if you all want to leave, or if you want me to leave. I can do on-call at home, or maybe Lorna, you'd like the opportunity to do it. I agree to the will of the group." He tried a small smile. "I know I fucked up. You don't have to remind of that. I'm sure I'll be hearing about this for a long time, but trust me -- you're not saying anything that hasn't been playing in my head since last night."

Lorna held her tongue for as long as possible as she focused on the bruises. With the most even tone she ever had, she spoke."Why didn't you ask us for help, Warren? We are a team. We would had come to your help, and all of us are all adults." She took out some pain killer pills and handed two of them to him. "It isn't just Adrienne worrying about the family, there is a full mansion of adults that also have responsibilities to Miles. If it got out to his family that we allowed their son to get into harms way, what kind of precedence would that set? Just because we are different, doesn't mean we don't play by their rules?" She patted Warren on the shoulder. "We are all upset yes, I think we are all more upset that you didn't ask us. Like you don't trust us enough to help."

"Lorna's right. Warren, I know you and I don't like to talk about it, but I want to know you can always trust me. Always." Jessica stated, clenching her fists at her sides. "But you have to know that I have a duty to preserve the safety of my students. They're all good kids and I don't want anything to happen to them. Not like me when I was their age. I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell Scott about this." Jessica stated firmly as she reached for her coat. Sliding it on, she quickly dug out her phone. "Lorna, will you make sure he's taken care of? I think we've given him enough what for tonight. I'll text you in the morning, Warren, to check up." She finished as she walked toward the door. She was still shaking and she knew that she would be checking up on Miles as soon as she was able.

"I have some work in my lab I need to get back to," Sue announced grabbing her jacket off a desk and making her way to the door giving Lorna's shoulder a squeeze as she passed the brown haired girl. "I hope your injuries clear up soon," she told Warren, the sooner they did the sooner she could kick his ass without feeling bad about it. It's not like there was anything at work that she desperately needed to get to, but the blonde needed some air to clear her head.

Adrienne finished the cigarette she'd lit upon entering her office and stubbed it out in the ash tray. She felt calmer now and was second-guessing her decision to kick Warren out on his ass permanently. Maybe it was stupid of her, maybe she was being an emotional woman giving too much credit to the man she used to know in the old universe. But she still wanted to believe there was hope for Worthington, that he'd grow the hell up and could become a responsible, reliable adult. A business partner and teammate she could trust.

Taking a deep breath, she got smoothly to her feet and straightened out the stack of papers she'd printed before emerging from her office and slamming the office door behind her. "I called Bobbi to cover your shift," she said as she sauntered towards the door. "I'm going out. When I get back, you'd better not be here. You're suspended until I can figure out whether or not I'm buying you out and kicking your ass out of here for good."

Suspended? What? He almost opened his mouth to argue but the looks around the room told him that now was not the time.

So this was what consequences felt like. Interesting.

Getting to his feet, he gave a brief nod. "As you wish. I apologize for anything that might arise from this. I'll be leaving now.". He gathered his things and made his way to the door, ignoring the pain in his ribs. "Talk to you guys later."

Tonight, he was heading to his penthouse. Adrienne had kicked him out of the office and he had a feeling that the mansion would feel the same way. Besides, while he was unwilling to admit to the ladies that he was in serious pain, he didn't think he'd last until he got back to Westchester.

It would be a long night.