1/30 Instance: Working Relationship

[Svartfreja]

Timelined for the start of the storm.


<Carol> The weather was, undeniably, awful but it was going to get a whole lot worse before it got better. So, to make sure no one got injured by low flying machinery, Carol had ordered everything that wasn't nailed down moved into the hangar and off the grounds.

<Carol> Currently she was overseeing the positioning of everything and making sure it was all secured properly, including her trailer-office that would just fall over if the wind got any stronger. The main hatches were all closed, leaving just a small door to come in and out by which was banging in the wind.

<Carol> The SHIELD personnel were complaining about the draught by now but they were almost done and then she was ordering them upstairs into the apartments to stay there until the storm was over. She could be nice when neccessary - they would all be so surprised.

<Christopher> Chris found out from a few agents where Carol would be and set off towards the hangar. He had been putting off telling her about his memories coming back for too long. The flashbacks weren't hard to deal with but the loss of sleep from the nightmares was starting to get to him.

<Christopher> It didn't take him too long to find his way to the hangar, mostly because he knew they had stashed his trailer in there too. He made his way up to her trailer office and knocked on the door.

<Carol> Being on the other side of the trailer, rather than in it, Carol heard the knock and headed around the corner to see who it was, "Oh... hey... Your trailer's over there," she pointed to the far side of the hangar where it was being secured to a wall.

<Christopher> "Yeah I saw it on the way in, thanks for bringing it in. I've been staying in my office lately though, paperwork and all that junk. Wouldn't have thought about it til it was too late." Chris was just fumbling around with the small talk, still avoiding the issue.

<Carol> "No problem... didn't want to find it in the rec room tomorrow morning," she gave a half shrug, "Soooo if you're not looking for your trailer... what do you want?"

<Christopher> Chris let out a soft sigh. "Needed someone to talk to and, well, pretty sure you're my only option." He ran a shaky hand through his hair. The fact that he knew she was going to be mad for him waiting so long made him nervous, almost scared to still talk to her.

<Carol> Carol raised an eyebrow, "Uh... okay... one sec..." She went to the other side of the trailer and whistled to get the attention of the SHIELD agents, "Okay, I'll finish up here... you guys all go and get yourselves situated in the apartments upstairs. I don't want anyone going outside in this, okay? If there's an emergency call me or one of the other teachers and I'll come over here."

<Carol> She paused, "If you absolutely have to go to another building, use the goddamn tunnels. That's what they're for and they are not haunted by a lobotomising psychopath. I'll bring some supplies over in a little while." She shooed them off - they hurried before she could change her mind - and then she returned to Chris.

<Carol> "Now that we're free of eavesdroppers..." she gestured to her trailer/office, "I'll just get the door," she thumbed to the door to the grounds that was still banging in the wind.

<Christopher> "Yeah sure." Chris moved into the office to wait for her. "Great weather we're having isn't it?"

<Carol> "It's about to get even better," she caught the door and slammed it closed, securing it tightly before going back to the trailer and heading inside. "Sorry about the mess, it's not really designed to be used for the volume of information I get in a day..." There were piles of papers everywhere and a lot of it was on the floor, though it was hard to tell if this was a result of the move or where they always stayed.

<Christopher> "It's not much worse than my office." Chris managed to find himself a place to sit that wasn't covered with papers. "My little vacation put me waaay behind. Pretty sure I'm going to have to give up my soul and all free time to catch my students up..."

<Carol> "It wasn't your fault... if you want some extra help I can probably get someone in to shift all the paperwork faster... or you can do what I did when I got back from my Christmas vacation and just shred everything and start fresh. It's theraputic."

<Christopher> Chris just laughed a little at that. "I'll be fine, weather's making it easy to get caught up. Not getting much sleep though..." He contemplated burning the worthless crap his sub had them doing though.

<Carol> "Sooooo you don't want my help to get caught up?" She had no idea why he was even there in that case, "Are you quitting?"

<Christopher> "None of that no." Chris ran his hands through his hair trying to steady himself. He hadn't told anyone about the memories; not even Hope, before they broke up, and definitely not Kat. "I.. I'm starting to remember." He swallowed, trying to get past his initial fears that he might somehow change back, that this was all part of that sadist's plans.

<Carol> It took her a moment to realise what he was talking about but it didn't help her confusion any, "Oh... uh... okay... I'm not really sure... wouldn't Cessily be better for this?"

<Christopher> Chris just shrugged. "Thought you guys wanted to know if I started to remember things." He almost face-palmed at his moment of stupidity. Of course she doesn't care, numb nuts.

<Carol> "Well... obviously we'd like to know if you remember anything that could help us catch these people but... first it'd be better to just focus on dealing with it..." She leaned against the counter of the kitchenette, looking at him for a few moments, "Do you want to talk about it now or wait until it's not so painful?"

<Christopher> "Don't think it'll ever not be painful... I killed children Carol, helpless little kids." He never changed his posture from start to finish of that sentence no extra emotions. He knew it wasn't really him, but that didn't mean he didn't feel remorse for what had been done. "And what that bastard did to me..."

<Carol> Carol pushed a hand through her hair, adjusting her position slightly, "I know it won't stop hurting... but it'll hurt less. You obviously, and understandably, have some form of PTSD... I think it's important to get that looked at first before we go dragging anything else into it.... don't you agree?"

<Christopher> "Probably, maybe Cess can spare some time for me. Been a while since me and my best man, uhmm woman, had a chance to talk. Sorry to sob on your shoulder. I'll send you some liquor to make up for it. I have enough stashed away to open a store."

<Carol> Carol shook her head, "Don't worry about it. I'm kind of surprised you came to me but... I think it's encouraging that you did and I'm flattered." She offered him a smile, "If you do decide you want to talk to me about it, I'll listen... It's not like I don't have experience with PTSD."

<Christopher> "Figured there was some 'don't tell the public' thing, since SHIELD rescued me. Not that there's anything wrong with you, Carol."

<Carol> She shook her head again, "It wasn't that... it was more that with everything that we knew, we didn't think it would be a great idea to send students and teachers with history and faces known in the media in case it went badly. SHIELD decided to handle it because we've dealt with that sort of thing before - we wanted a small team with a clear goal so we could go in and out fast... involving the school gets messy."

<Christopher> "Yeah, we're not too precision are we?" Chris sighed. "I can get out of your hair if you're busy, Carol. I should probably go make sure my forge is secured - pretty sure the wind isn't going to move a giant steel dome, though."

<Carol> "We already took care of that," she offered him a smile, "But you can help me check everything in the hangar is secured, that'd be a big help."

<Christopher> "Sure, I can manage that. Been worthless for a while now guess I should re-learn how to be useful." Chris got up carefully, wondering where she wanted to start.

<Carol> She raised an eyebrow at him, "Worthless? Come on, no one thinks that..." she led the way across the hangar to finish securing his trailer and the other items around it.

<Christopher> "You obviously missed my drunken stupors. My winter break went from being de-monstered to drinking a lake's worth of alcohol to trying to sober up because of doing stupid shit. You can't tell me you think that's of any value." He shook his head a little. "But I'm done beating myself up over certain things. Gotta move on, be an adult."

<Carol> Carol stared at him for a moment, "Chris... you just got back here after being experimented on and unleashed on Alaska. No one is going to judge you for crawling into a hole and drinking for a few weeks to cope with it... and, if they do, they don't know what they're talking about. Moving on is healthy but don't rush it if you're not ready just because you think someone might disapprove."

<Christopher> "Oh... you're really out of the loop. Nah there's not enough alcohol in the world for that. Hope broke up with me.... I deal with loss in the fashion of 'ignore the pain with drugs or booze' and I swore off drugs after the incident."

<Carol> "I know she broke up with you - there was a whole thing with a photograph that nearly derailed my entire vacation," she waved a hand dismissively, "You trying to tell me she broke up with you for drinking?"

<Christopher> "Other way around, I was happy and coping well then she left me and I attempted to drink away the days with a healing factor. Ya know how hard that shit is? I spent a small fortune just to get drunk for a few days, but Paige and Kat successfully derailed that train. And one of your guys slapped some sense into me after I saw said picture."

<Carol> ".... See, this is why I drink. There is too much angst in this place for one woman to keep tabs on. Seriously. It's like freaking high school." She gave the trailer a nudge to vent her frustration, satisfied that it was now secured. "I know how hard it is to get drunk - I'm resistant to alcohol... but I think if you're relying on other people to keep you stable you need to watch out."

<Christopher> "It was just a lot to deal with all at once... Yeah this place has always been pretty crazy, or at least for as long as I've been here. I'm sure Cess could tell you plenty of stories."

<Carol> "Probably... but I try to avoid all the horror stories because I have enough day to day." She offered him a small smile, "It's not all stuff that goes on here, there's a lot of other things happening that you all don't get to see. The world isn't a good place right now..."

<Christopher> "Is it ever?" Chris frowned. "Didn't know you had so much on your plate though, sorry I've been an ass."

<Carol> "No one really does... well except Cessily but she doesn't even get the specifics of it all. Most of what ends up on my desk is Classified... but I can use discretion to share it with the rest of you if it impacts us here. Thankfully nothing's got that bad yet... well except the stuff with Danger... and with you."

<Christopher> "Yeah... I hope I'll be able to help with that. Maybe we'll get lucky and I'll remember more..." He really didn't want to remember more than he already did.

<Carol> "Well, don't rush it. We'll manage... just figure it out in your own time, okay?" She really didn't want him going off the deep end, that would mean soooo much paperwork.

<Christopher> "I'm doing better now. It's been a rough few weeks but I think I'll manage. I'll grab a case of beer from my storage and pop in on Cess sometime if it gets too rough."

<Carol> "Yeah... make sure you knock first, though, okay?"

<Christopher> "Not like I haven't seen.... yeah, I'll knock." Chris remembered that those two were having relations now. "I have a few friends that came out of nowhere when I was hurting so I can go to them too. Though, if Bobby tries to convince you drinking with an inhibitor on is a good idea, slap him for me."

<Carol> Carol laughed, "Been there, done that. Sometimes it's a great thing... you just have to pace yourself."

<Christopher> "Yeah.... well, I'm too used to drinking past a healing factor. Woke up with the worst, and only, hangover I've ever had and couldn't get the damn thing off me to activate my healing. And, to top it off, I had a brunette yelling at me, which is a long story you don't want to know about."

<Carol> Carol raised an eyebrow, "Guess that depends... is it a something that might affect your ability to do your job further down the line?"

<Christopher> "No?" Chris raised an eyebrow, "Just pissed someone off at the wrooooong time and without really doing anything, but I fixed it. Like I said, I'm doing better now."

<Carol> "Okay..." she eyed him suspiciously, "So we can draw a line under the whole Hope thing now and never speak of it again?"

<Christopher> "Please god yes.... A topic I plan to avoid for as long as possible from now on." Chris sighed , he still missed her.

<Carol> "Okay good. Because Student and Teacher line crossing is not a thing I want to get into... especially not with the President's daughter but really just at all... it's messy."

<Christopher> "Yeah I just want to forget it ever happened for now. Gonna focus on helping my students get back on track. Thank God that girl Kat we picked up is a bio major. She's accepted the position of my T.A. which means less work for me!" Chris laughed a little.

<Carol> Carol blinked at him, "Were you planning on telling me about this if I hadn't asked? You do know I have to pay her, right?"

<Christopher> "T.A.s get paid?" Chris stared at her.

<Carol> "... You're an idiot." She rolled her eyes, "It's a job like any other. Of course they get paid. No one would do that shit for free... unless there was some other benefit to doing it." She was suspicious again.

<Christopher> "I thought it was for teaching experience. Sorry I really didn't know, I was home schooled til I got here. Well that's just a plus."

<Carol> "I'll handle the paperwork... just not til after this storm's over... I feel like we're going to have enough to worry about." She checked over the jet one last time before concluding that there was nothing more she could do there. "Wherever you're planning on holing up for this storm, I'd suggest going there soon... or using the tunnels. It's getting pretty bad out there."

<Christopher> "Probably going to hole up in my classroom and work on grading papers and planning lessons. I should have enough snacks piled up in there for months."

<Carol> "I'll head back up there with you... Better to go in pairs in this, I think. I can manage fine but I cheat..."

<Christopher> "You know I'm indestructible basically, right?" Chris laughed a little. "But the company is appreciated."

<Carol> "Indestructible does not mean you won't get lost in a blizzard and wind up in the Atlantic," Carol pointed out, going to lock up her office before she left it for the forseeable future.

<Christopher> "No, that's where boy scout training comes in. But, yeah, even they say buddy system. We can make some smores on a bunsen burner before you leave."

<Carol> "I would but I can't relax yet... need to know everyone's safely inside first. Maybe later, though... and I'll bring Cess, I know she'd never pass up the opportunity for smores."

<Christopher> "Sure that'd be great. We can get drunk and try not to burn the school down."

<Carol> "Sounds like a plan." She opened the door to the storm, "Shall we then?"

<Christopher> "Off into the unknown we go!" Chris tightened up his jacket to head out into the cold depths of hell with her.