Tuesday at the grocery store

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

Jamie and Lorna stock up on dessert fixings, but take time out to have a confessional moment about Skippy and guilt. Good thing Tuesday afternoon isn't a popular grocery-shopping time, really.


Jamie dropped a second package of Dove bars into the shopping cart and smiled wryly at Lorna. "Bobby hasn't learned how to make these yet, and they only package one serving per box anyway."

“You’re justifying dessert to the chef. I think that’s a little redundant.” Lorna grinned back, nudging the boxes with a fingertip, choosing not to mention that Jamie was considered 4 bars one serving. “At least, you picked Dove.”

"What else was I gonna pick, generic store brand?" Jamie wrinkled his nose theatrically. "Even the cardboard in the boxes is substandard. This is definitely a job for Dove. Dark chocolate, too, you note."

“The only way to fly,” Lorna agreed. “Now if we can get back to the list.” She shook the shopping list at him, mock-stern. “We still have to get food with nutritional value, you know.”

"My mutant teenager metabolism scoffs at your 'nutritional value,'" Jamie replied loftily. "But man does not live by ice cream alone, I have to admit. Not without getting scurvy, anyway, and I'm pretty sure Kitty'll be mad if she comes back and finds me with open sores and bleeding gums."

“How can I say ‘ew’ emphatically enough?” Lorna pushed the cart down the aisle. Nothing on her list was frozen. “We need fresh fruit and vegetables. Because there is nothing attractive about having your teeth fall out.”

"No," Jamie agreed fervently, "there definitely isn't. Are bananas on the list?"

Lorna looked at the list, “Not at the moment.” She fished a pen out of her purse and held it over the list, “Do we need bananas?”

"We don't have any, and I kinda like 'em. They taste good and the peels are rife with possibility. But if you want oranges or something, I'm good either way."

“Or we can go wild and get both. We have the technology,” she grinned, “and the Professor’s credit card.” She added bananas to her list. “I’ll make bananas foster.”

Jamie blinked. "Okay, either that's an Australian beer cocktail, or something new that I'd like to try."

Lorna grinned the grin of an evil genius. "It's dessert disguised at breakfast. Poorly disguised. Okay, not disguised at all just eaten at breakfast so you can get an early start on your sugar rush."

Jamie returned the grin. "I very much approve. Especially if we can feed it to Miles and foist him off on his mom the rest of the day. And hey, it's got fruit, it's healthy."

"Just keep saying until you believe it. Alison can sense lies, I think." Lorna glanced down at her list, "Hey, run off and grab me some cream of tartar would you? Ali was begging for sugar cookies."

"This must be some kind of chef sugar cookies. Pretty sure my mom's never bought that." Jamie jogged off into the store, returning shortly with a box. "This enough?"

Lorna blinked at the size of the box and set the rice she was holding down. "Yeah, that's plenty. I usually get the little jars." She held her fingers about two inches apart. "I only need like a teaspoon."

"Oh, okay. Sorry. Least you won't run out in a while, anyway." He grinned. "Always better to buy in bulk, that way you don't have to go shopping so much."

"Not a bad suggestion. Then maybe I won't be too far away to help next time the mansion goes to hell." It came out laden with bitterness and Lorna bit her lip as though she could take it back.

Jamie rocked back on his heels slightly, then reached out with one hesitant hand before dropping it back to his side. "Don't feel guilty about that, I . . . I'm glad you weren't there. It's--it was hard enough."

Lorna stared at him, “You’re glad? But...why? I should have been there. That’s why I’ve got a silly codename.” She didn’t even think to check if anyone was nearby. Luckily, the market was quiet and mostly uninhabited.

Jamie managed a strained, flat smile. "Because ever since it happened, I . . . can't talk to my friends without wondering if the next words out of my mouth came out of his. Hell, the next gesture. And they wouldn't say anything, they'd be polite because they wouldn't want to upset me, but there'd be that . . . pause. I'm terrified of that pause." He shuddered. "I'm so tired of walking through minefields. It was okay when Kitty was here--she never made me feel that way. But she's gone. Which means out of all the people here I care about, you're the only one left who doesn't have to look past this face to see me. So yeah, I'm glad you weren't there then, silly codename or not, because I need you here now."

Lorna’s mouth worked silently for a few seconds, trying to come up with something that wasn’t going to sound dismissive, self-deprecating or horrified. In the end, she shut her mouth and just crossed the space between them to offer him a hug.

Jamie buried his face in her shoulder, his arms closing around her convulsively. "Too many people I love had to fight monsters with my face," he murmured, voice ragged. "Don't ever be sorry you weren't one of them."

Lorna held on, needing to hear that as much as he seemed to need her. “I never thought of it like that. I was upset that once again, my home was facing something and I wasn’t there to defend it. That you and the rest of the kids were in danger and every single one of the self-proclaimed heroes except Alison was off with better things to do.” She sighed, “In my head, he was never you. Even with your face. Maybe because I wasn’t there to see but I don’t think so. I know you. And I don’t think you could ever remind me of any monster even with your face.”

"You'll never have to find out," Jamie promised. "He's gone, and he's never coming back. And next disaster, I'll call you first thing." He chuckled weakly. "Maybe we should set up a rotation. 'Aliens? No, I'm sorry, it's not my week for aliens, come back later.' . . . It's not their fault either, for not being here. If they had been, he just would've waited until they left. Can't pull our heads in and hope the world goes away."

“See that’s just not fair. Why can’t we just have nice normal lives?” she protested, “Most people don’t live this way and it sucks that we have to. Why is it that we can’t leave the house without worrying that something is going to take another shot at us? I’m tired of not being able to stop it.”

"I know. I hate it too. But I dunno what to do about it. We can't fight the world by fighting."

“Can’t fight, can’t hide. Can’t do anything but wait for the trouble to come to us. Which it always does.” She shook her head, frustrated.

"It'll get better. Things do, and we pretty seriously tested the law of averages this year. And now you can call me Pollyanna. Or maybe Annie. There need to be more boy optimists."

“This too shall pass?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “I just wish there was something we could do while it was passing.”

Jamie grinned. "Bananas foster?"

"Thinking with your stomach. Just like a boy." She ruffled his hair as though he were six. "Fine, useless discussions of inevitabilities later. Shopping now. I need flour. Baking flour, mind you."

"Sounds like a plan." Jamie patted her shoulder as he went off for the flour. "There's always something we can do if we look hard enough."

"Yeah, its just a matter of taking the opportunity," she sighed again.