1/28 Instance: Soft Targets

[Svartfreja]

Current Timeline.


<Carol> Carol sat in her office, looking over the latest reports she'd been faxed over and not liking what she saw. On her computer were several news feeds tracking a multitude of incidents and the television was tuned to one of the 24 hour news stations to keep an eye on what was leaked to the press. Her week was looking busy.

<Cessily> Cessily checked her reflection in the palm of her hand, making sure her red hair was shifted in an appealing shape, before she knocked on the door to the SHIELD liaison's office. A folder made of black leather was tucked underneath her elbow.

<Carol> She stared at the door for a long moment, wondering who it could be, before she decided to just find out. "Come in?"

<Cessily> Opening the door, the silver teacher leaned into the room and beamed the blond woman her brightest smile. "Good morning, Carol!" the shiny girl said. "Are you ready for our meeting?"

<Carol> "We have a meeting?" She looked down at her desk, digging through the mess of papers to find her list of things to do today. "Crap... I completely lost track of time."

<Cessily> Cessily had stepped into Carol's office, but now slowed her step. "Oh," she replied, fidgeting awkwardly with the doorknob. "That's really no problem - there's so much going on right now, I'm surprised any of us remembers to sleep." She gestured towards the door. "I can come back another time if that would be better."

<Carol> "No, no... we had an appointment... let me just clear my desk a little..." She gathered up some papers then turned in her seat to try and find somewhere to put them down. The shredder was tempting.

<Cessily> The smile returned to Cessily's face and she closed the door. "Oh, good, I promise I'll make it worth your time," she said, before quickly elaborating. "I mean, I'll try to make it quick."

<Carol> "Oh God, please don't. I need to not look at this crap for as long as possible." She decided the floor was good enough and dropped the pile of papers beside her desk. Now she just had to find the remote for the TV, she scanned the exposed areas of her desk for it while she reached to turn the computer monitor off and spied it in the trash can.

<Carol> "Okay," she plucked the remote out of the trash and turned off the TV too, "Now you have my undivided attention."

<Cessily> "Oh, good." Cessily resisted the temptation of asking how the remote control had ended up in the trash in the first place. Smiling, she stepped up to Carol's desk, holding the folder in front of her lap. "Uhm, do you mind if I take a seat?"

<Carol> "No, I want you to stand there the whole time we're talking.... of course you can sit down." She laughed a little, "Do you want some coffee?"

<Cessily> "Only if you don't have to go find the coffee machine first, too." Cessily laughed and sat down in the offered chair, where she opened the leather folder to take out her tablet computer. "I wanted to discuss some ideas for improved training programs with you. Oh, and one of our students had some interesting thoughts regarding a new danger room."

<Cessily> "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a room," the silver teacher added, reaching up to brush a strand of red hair out of her face.

<Carol> "I can always find the coffee machine, it's not a power but it should be." She got up to get some for both of them, "What would you call it if it's not a room?"

<Cessily> "Well, you see, I guess you could describe the idea more like a ... danger campus," Cessily replied with an awkward smile, loading up some of the sketches Broo doodled on her tablet to show it to Carol. "As you can see, it's quite the project."

<Carol> Carol's eyebrows went up, "Huh... well that would keep everyone on their toes..." she leaned to look at them as she poured, "I like it. Do it!" She gave the silver girl a grin, holding out a cup to her.

<Cessily> Cessily acted reflexively when she took the offered cup from Carol, too busy looking like a surprised squirrel. That had been a lot easier than expected. Maybe she was better at this than she had thought? "Really?" she asked, just to be sure she had understood the other woman right. "I mean, excellent!"

<Cessily> "Oh, thank you." She held up her cup and smiled sheepishly.

<Carol> "After what happened at that concert? I think we need all the help we can get. Anything has got to be better than what we're doing now because this is going to get worse before it gets better. Like a lot worse." She sat on the edge of her desk with her coffee and sighed.

<Cessily> "I already saw some of the headlines," Cessily said, her cheerful expression turning more solemn. "The ones merely asking why the X-Men didn't stop the attack were actually the most positive ones." She gave Carol a half-smile. "Popularity is a fickle thing, I guess."

<Carol> "It's worse than that... it's looking like there's going to be efforts to give you guys a bad rep to boost the popularity of the Sentinels." She took a sip of her coffee, "Which is why we're going to need a whole lot of practice dealing with surprise aggression."

<Cessily> Cessily cradled her cup in both hands and raised it to her lips to take a sip, enjoying the taste and the warmth of the beverage. She knew it was just a subconscious reaction, but she always imagined to feel a little more awake when having coffee. "Then it's a good thing we have a long history of having to deal with unprovoked hatred and aggression."

<Carol> "Yeah... well, it isn't... it sucks that that's the way it is but I guess it's better than being all wide eyed an inno- hold that thought." Somewhere under the mess of paperwork, her cellphone was ringing. "Man if I didn't have the powers I do I would never ever find this thing..." she stuck her hand into one of the piles to extract her phone.

<Cessily> "Maybe you just need a better system to memorise where you put your things," Cessily suggested, a smile playing across her shiny lips. "Or a maid." She hid her grin behind the cup when she took another sip.

<Carol> "The second one for sure... but she'd quit in like an hour." She eyed the number on her phone, "Huh... it's my brother... hold on..." she answered the call, "Hey Joe, now's not really a good time, can you call back later?"

<Cessily> Cessily waited patiently while Carol was on the phone with her brother, remaining silent and sipping on her coffee. Maybe he would have some news for them. She made a mental note to thank him personally sometime. It was the least they could do to appreciate what everyone was doing for them.

<Carol> Carol's expression shifted rapidly from impatient to upset and she stood up, turning her back to Cessily, "I-I can't right now... no, I'm at work, I'll have to call some people..."

<Cessily> Shifting in her chair, Cessily did her best to not appear too nosey. She couldn't help but wonder what this talk was about, though. This didn't sound like good news at all.

<Carol> "I... I don't know... maybe an hour?" She put her coffee down to push a hand through her hair, "What does he want me to say? That's the best I can do..." At least anger was better than breaking down.

<Cessily> Now Cessily was getting a little anxious, looking awkward as she sucked on her lower lip. "If it's something important, I wouldn't want to hold you up, Carol," she spoke up, keeping her voice hushed to not distract the other woman. "We can continue this meeting another time if something came up."

<Carol> "Alright, alright, I'll see what I can do..." she hung up the phone, attempting to compose herself and stop her hands from shaking before she turned back to face Cessily. "I, um... I'm going to have to take some time off..."

<Cessily> Cessily blinked at Carol, trying to make sense of what was going on. "As in, for the rest of the day, or...?" she asked, fidgeting with her half-empty cup.

<Carol> She shook her head, casting a glance around the office. There wasn't enough time to do any of this stuff. "For-" she cut herself off, her voice cracking a little. She tried again, "For a while... My other brother... the one in the Air Force... he was in an accident this morning and..." she cleared her throat, "he died..." She looked away from the other woman again, fighting to stay in control of her emotions.

<Cessily> "Oh my God..." Cessily looked even more shocked than her trembling voice made her sound. She quickly put down the cup of coffee and rose to her feet. "Carol, I'm so sorry!" Her first reflex was to step over and hug the other woman, but she hesitated.

<Carol> "I can't... I don't know what I'm supposed to do right now... they want me to go home... I should... but I can't just drop everything..."

<Cessily> Settling for a compromise, Cessily closed the distance between them and put her hand on Carol's shoulder, metallic fingers giving a gentle squeeze. "Please, forget your work for a moment," she told the young SHIELD officer. "Of course you should go home. This is more important. That's your family."

<Carol> "I can't help them... I'm more use here...." and she didn't want to go home, really. It would be stressful enough even without the circumstances.

<Cessily> Cessily remained silent for a moment, trying to weigh her words while dealing with her own shock. After a look over her shoulder towards the door, she bit her lower lip and turned back to face Carol. "Would you like me to leave you alone for a moment, or do you want me to stay?" she asked, her voice soft.

<Carol> She shook her head, "I don't know... I should call Fury but he probably already knows..." she bowed her face into her hands. "I spoke to him last week... he promised me he'd be careful...."

<Cessily> Staying by Carol's side, Cessily made sure to maintain physical contact at all times. She knew the mere presence of another person could be more soothing than any words. That was just one of the lessons you learned when so many around you suffered horrible loss, even though she often wished such knowledge had never been necessary.

<Cessily> "Did they tell you what happened?" the silver girl asked after a short pause, not wishing to intrude too much.

<Carol> She shook her head, swallowing the lump in her throat, "They said it was an accident on a routine assignment... but I don't think it was.... they won't release too much information though... he's Air Force, like me...."

<Cessily> Cessily simply nodded, taking a deep breath before exhaling slowly. "I know it sounds just like an empty phrase, but I'm so very sorry for your loss." She paused, taking another breath. "Were you two close?"

<Carol> She nodded, "Very... we joined up together... We've always been close."

<Cessily> Feeling a lump in her own throat, Cessily responded by squeezing Carol's shoulder again. "If there's anything I can do for you, please, just say it," she told the SHIELD officer. The young counsellor knew that nothing she said could make the other woman feel better - she could only be there for her.

<Carol> "I could hear my dad yelling in the background... he's already started blaming me," she pushed both her hands through her hair, glancing at Cessily, "Trouble is... I think he's probably right."

<Cessily> Cessily was quick to shake her head and gave Carol a firm look. "Don't do that to yourself," she said. "You can't blame yourself for an accident."

<Carol> "And if it wasn't an accident?" She fixed her gaze on the other woman's face.

<Cessily> Her silver brow furrowed. "Why would you think that?" Cessily asked. "Is there a reason you believe it might not have been?"

<Carol> She nodded, straightening up to move back around her desk to her seat and flopping into it. "I spoke to him last week about the Sentinel Department... he seemed to think he was being watched or something... it was making me paranoid and I'm not really the type... he found out where all your stuff went... well who it went to... he was going to look into where for me..."

<Cessily> Cessily's eyes went wide and she looked at Carol in disbelief. "And now you think that they might have something to do with what happened to your brother?" she asked, knowing the answer. "Do you really think they would do something like that? I mean, they're probably pretty shady people, but that would be murder."

<Carol> "Not if it looks like an accident..." she leaned back in her chair, "Do you want to know who has your stuff?"

<Cessily> Cessily leaned against the edge of Carol's desk and looked at its owner. "Of course," she replied, unprepared for the change of subject. "You mean, he found something out?"

<Carol> "He found a lot out, actually... OsCorp has your stuff."

<Cessily> "Norman Osborn's company... who's supplying the Sentinels..." Cessily stated the obvious, her eyes locked on Carol's face. "You mean this is what they stole our technology for? To turn it into weapons against us?"

<Carol> "They were building the Sentinels before that but they hit a problem with them... then after Christmas everything was suddenly fixed. The only thing we had on the suits was the name of the department they worked for. It all fits... and I don't know if he found out which facility they were in..."

<Cessily> Cessily looked down at the floor, one hand in her hair. "If that is true, and they're really behind your brother's death," she said, glancing towards the officer again, "he died for a war that wasn't even his. I... this shouldn't have happened. We dragged you into this."

<Carol> "No... I dragged me into this." She corrected, "I got into some trouble because I was looking into some other stuff that wasn't okay... all that stuff with the terrorists that should have been in prison and weren't. I got too close to something and Fury sent me to you guys to keep me out of more trouble."

<Cessily> "Either way, I can't hope to ever repay you enough for what your brother did for us." Cessily's lips were pressed into a thin silver line as she looked towards the window. "And if those are the same people behind all these things, then I'm afraid they might target you, as well."

<Carol> "Oh, I'll be fine... I'm pretty much indestructible... I guess they didn't expect people like me when they designed those sentinels..." she gave a slightly dark half-smile.

<Cessily> "Still, you might want to be careful," Cessily advised, giving Carol a worried look. "If they realize they can't hurt you, they might try to hurt others you care about instead."

<Carol> "They already did that... and if they think I'm going to let this one go, they've got another thing coming."

<Cessily> "The least we can do is help you repay them for your loss," Cessily said, doing her best to deliver an encouraging smile. "And make sure your brother's sacrifice won't have been in vain."

<Carol> "Thanks..." she glanced around the room, "I... I guess I should go or something..."

<Cessily> "Oh, yes, of course." Cessily stepped back and awkwardly brushed aside her hair. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything here. You have my mobile number, yes? Know you can always call me if there's anything I can do for you. Or... if you just feel like talking."

<Carol> "I'm not really a talker... but thanks... I don't think I'll be gone that long..."

<Cessily> "Okay, but do take care of yourself, yes?" She nodded, then looked at the floor. "I guess I should inform Erik then."

<Carol> "Yeah..." she ran a hand through her hair, getting to her feet and looking for where she'd put her phone. "I'll probably only be gone for the afternoon... maybe... there's only so much of my parents I can take..." And going home without Steven in the house was going to be difficult.

<Cessily> Cessily nodded again and picked up her tablet from Carol's desk. "Very well then," she said, retreating towards the door. "When you get back and you feel like it, you can stop by my office. Doesn't matter if it's late."

<Carol> She nodded distractedly, chewing her lip. "I don't know if I can do this..."

<Cessily> "Perhaps... you'd like if I stayed a little while longer," Cessily quietly suggested, having stopped by the door.

<Carol> "I said I'd be an hour... it's going to take at least a half hour to drive down there..." she sighed, "It's just... whenever I go home he's always there... we used to time our visits so I didn't have to be there without a buffer... Joe's okay but... he doesn't really get in between things..."

<Cessily> A faint smile played around the edges of Cessily's mouth. "Well, except for our meeting, I've got nothing else scheduled for the day."

<Carol> She eyed the other woman for a moment or two, "Are you volunteering to come with me?"

<Cessily> "As I've said, our meeting is the only thing I've scheduled, and we can hardly do that if we're in different places," Cessily replied, her smile growing brighter.

<Carol> "That... would be... great... but completely inappropriate?" she chewed her lip, "Are you sure you want to do that?"

<Cessily> "Please, it's the least I can do." Cessily stepped back towards Carol's desk, smiling at the officer. "And if your family would consider it inappropriate that a colleague accompanies you, just introduce me as your girlfriend."

<Carol> Carol stared at her for a long moment and then she laughed... hard. "Oh my God, I can only imagine the look on my dad's face if I said that!"

<Cessily> "Well, look at that, you're already laughing again." Cessily was still smiling as sat down on the edge of Carol's desk. "Obviously, this was the right idea."

<Carol> "It's a great idea... as long as you promise not to give me disapproving looks when I start drinking."

<Cessily> "No worries, I promise not to make a scene again," Cessily replied, holding up her hands. "But you might have to sleep on the couch tonight."

<Carol> She smiled, holding out her hand to the other girl, "I've slept in worse places."

[steyn]

First when I read the broo bit, I was

but then it all went

when reading about Carol-bro.