| Ever Miss Being Out There? |
| Summary: | Rachel interrupts Alex to reminisce about their time in space. |
| Date: | IC Date (2016-06-17) |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | None |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
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Fade in…
Alex is found behind his desk. It's late, pushing 10pm (EST) and the office is illuminated by a small desk lamp, gold base, green glass shade. He's handwriting notes in a top flipped yellow spiral pad with a pencil. He's wearing his black cotton pajamas that could double as his super suit if they were made of unstable molecules and were skin tight. Instead, loose breathable cotton. His head is held in his left hand while his right jots down notes. His feet are bare.
10pm isn't late for Rachel Grey. She's never been one for early bedtimes and tonight's no exception. She's more restless than usual, unable to settle into anything, and she went through every TV channel twice before giving up and just taking a walk through the quiet, sprawling halls of the mansion. It feels particularly solid and permanent tonight, and the thought's oddly reassuring. The light leaking out from under Alex's office door draws her like a moth to a flame… or maybe she's just bored, and she feels like inflicting herself on someone else as a distraction.
She pauses outside the door, a feather-light telepathic scan assuring her that Alex is alone, and then she knocks quietly before letting herself in. She's still properly dressed, a red top with a stylised phoenix picked out in gold, skinny jeans and boots. Because it's late (ish) and she's at home, the dark lines of her Hound marks show on her face. She doesn't need to hide them from Alex. "Working late?" She asks, in a tone that says 'I'm bored' pretty clearly.
Hearing the knocking, Alex looks up to see Rachel enter. Then a lightness comes to his face as he's relieved to see her - as oppossed to some student or anyone else on his annoying list. He says, "Hey. Yeah.. But what's up?". The latter being a question of reception as he closes his spiral notebook and gives her the attention she may require.
Rachel takes Alex's question as an invitation to close the door quietly behind her and move further into the room, leaning against the edge of his desk and folding her arms, her eyes flickering toward the notebook just before it's flipped shut. That draws a smirk from her as she was a little too late to see what he'd been writing. "Not sure." She admits, and steps away from his desk again to prowl around the room restlessly. "It feels like there's something right on the edge of my mind. Something I should recognise, but I've forgotten." She frowns at her own explanation. "Or maybe I'm just having an attack of insomnia." She offers with a shrug, walking over to the window and pulling the curtains back a bit, just enough to look up at the stars. "Do you ever miss being out there?" She asks, out of nowhere.
Turning in his high backed leather chair, he watches her movements and when she settles on the drapes he will lean back and cross his right ankle over his left knee. He straightens the stretched cotton pjs and ponders her question, "Yes… and no. It's good to be back on Earth. I really missed it and I don't miss the chaos out there." Subconsciously, he's barefoot for that very reason. He missed earth and wants to be very close to it. He continues, "But I also miss the freedom, the action, the lack of all the political nonsense of Earth. So, I'm torn."
Rachel nods slowly, listening to Alex's answer without turning around, still gazing up at the night sky. "I had to go. You know why. I think I probably went a little crazy for a while." Now she looks back over her shoulder and smirks. "Don't say a word." She warns him, before looking out at the night again. "It's good to be home." She says, as if she's reminding herself, but then adds, "But I miss it. Not the war. Not the death. I miss flying between the stars without a ship, even without a suit." She lets the curtain drop and turns around, flashing a quick grin. "Maybe I'm just a power junkie and I miss the Phoenix." She stuffs her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, nods toward the notebook. "So what did I interrupt, anyway?"
His eyes are reflective as she relays her inner thoughts and feelings. He stared at her quietly for a while, having his own memories of the events that they shared and then when his attention is turned back to the notebook he glances over to it. "Just noted about today. Yellow pads still work so much better for me than computers. They make my mind work a little better and allow me to scribble in the margins."
"Computers aren't really my thing, either." Rachel admits. "Even when they're NOT trying to take over the world." That she makes it a joke suggests that, restless or not, she's in a pretty decent mood. "Schoolwork, then?" She asks, sounding slightly disappointed. She gives a small shake of her head, an amused look in her eyes. "Whoever thought that giving me a class to teach was a good idea needs their head examining." She says, ruefully, then snorts quietly to herself. "Then again, I said yes, so maybe I do, too." She looks thoughtful. "We've got enough telepaths on the staff, maybe I should take a sabbatical or something." Her tone's more playful than serious. "What do you think?"
Keeping up with the flow of topics that spill from her lips is amusing to Alex. He smiles and rocks some in the chair with the subtle lifting of his left heel. Then when she finally settles on something, after the crazy train of thoughts, he says in a light tone, "I think you should be tortured just like the rest of us. Forced to deal with these kids on a daily basis."
Rachel groans, a bit theatrically, and extracts her hands from her pockets so she can push her fingers back through her hair, leaving it slightly mussed, although it's short enough that it's hard to tell. "Didn't have to be a telepath to know you were going to say that." Rachel mutters, and shoots Alex a mock-glare. "I guess misery loves company, huh?" She smiles, to take any possible sting out of her words, and sighs quietly to herself. "I should probably let you get back to putting kids on report, or whatever you were doing." She sounds a bit regretful as she says it. "Thanks for letting me bother you." She half turns towards the door, then hesitates. "I might not have been completely honest before. I miss the action, too." She smirks. "Next time there's a field trip that /doesn't/ involve the kids, let me know, OK?"
Alex smiles, nods and watches her head out with her trailing words of departure. "Will do. And you can drop by anytime.", are his final words as she exits. He also begins to open up his yellow pad and resumes his former position of leaning forward over it, head in left hand and eyes on paper as the tip of the mechanical pencil scribbles words.