Cabot and Associates - Tuesday, 01/19

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona threw herself into work with the abandon of the newly single. There was research to do, books to replace and reindex, calls to answer, forms to file; she was keeping busy.

That was when the phone rang. She answered it without thinking.

"Hello, Cabot and Associates. How may I help you today?"

"Fiona Post, please." Which wouldn't have been so shocking and it definitely wouldn't have nearly made her drop the phone... if it hadn't been her father.

"Dad?"

"Did you really think I wouldn't check in on you? Especially given the kind of things your brother hasn't been saying."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he continued smoothly, "that in my phonecall with him yesterday, there was not one complaint about you to be heard. It was all 'oh, she's doing good' and 'she said her new classes are interesting' and 'did you know she's a teaching assistant?'. Which lead me to believe that something might be, as they say, 'up'. So, my dear daughter, how are you?"

There was a long pause as she looked around the office, as if expecting recording equipment, or some sort of heavenly intervention. When nothing rose up and tried to eat her head, she shrugged and finally, answered.

"I'm all right."

"Just all right?"

"Yeah," she continued, starting to get annoyed with this, "I'm fine, okay?"

"Yes, of course. You sound very fine."

It almost could have been Eliot saying it, which was frustrating and interesting both.

She lowered her voice. "It's nothing I want to get into here, okay?"

In a similarly low voice, conspiratorial in turn, he whispered back "May I call later?"

It wasn't wise. She shouldn't be talking to him this much at all anymore, especially given her situation. But right now, she wanted someone to talk to, someone who wasn't on the island. She'd talked some to Eliot, but he was in the midst of his own little school crush and it'd just seemed cruel to ruin that for him. She refused to do it. But her Dad...

"Yeah. Call me later."

Louis's smile was audible. "Thank you, Fiona. Have a good day at work. Love you."

Fiona swallowed, hard, but she had to admit "Love you too, Dad. Bye."

And she hung up the phone to continue with her duties, somehow both better and worse than she'd been before the call.

The Law Offices of Cabot and Associates
LEGAL SERVICES • LEGAL AID
[ocdless but open!]

Comments

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex wasn't typically one to visit people in town but since he was in the area and had heard radio, he thought stopping in here might be proactive.

Or jerky. To him, those two things could be interchangeable but the player was all about this just being for funsies. So, he slipped inside, leaning back against the door and grinning. Mostly healed from the fight with Griff, he felt he had a reason to be smug.

"Having a productive day?" he asked, smirking in her direction.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She looked up, one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, as it happens. What brings you by?"

Fiona's player on the other hand is totally up for either.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I can't have just been in the neighborhood?" he asked, hands tucked into his pockets and feet crossed. "I've needed lawyers before so I thought I'd check this one out before I needed one again."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"You could, but it's unlikely," she admitted, pulling away from the computer to sit back in her chair.

"And if you want to speak to Miss Cabot, I can call her in. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Honestly, she was somewhat conflicted. She'd been incredibly pissed off that Karev had done what he'd done to Griff. Part of her wondered if it had helped or hurt matters between herself and Griff, or if it was something else apart entirely. But judging by how Griff had been, she had to reevaluate.

Given the kind of things he'd said to her, she might have done something mean to Griff. Not sell his things, mostly because of her own feelings about possessions, but something. Had things blown up between the two boys in a similarly spectacular way?

The whole thing left her wondering how to feel about Karev. She'd been starting to warm up to him; ever since the weekend where everyone had been transported in their sleep to the Other Island, she'd started to think he wasn't that bad.

...the cheerful thing was getting a bit annoying, though.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I don't need your boss," he said, shaking his head and pushing away from the door. "No need for a lawyer right now. Keeping my nose clean, aren't you proud?"

Well, clean enough. He was still pissing people off but he'd stopped short of arrestable offenses. That was progress.

"You've been all over radio lately," he said idly, still looking smug. He didn't listen often but sometimes you just had to. "Didn't wanna partake in my sale?"

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

That got a snort.

"Everyone's all over the radio," she pointed out with a hand through her hair.

"And no, there wasn't anything I'd want to take from Griff."

There were a few things she wanted to give him, like a smack to the back of the head and possibly a Piece Of Her Mind, but that was another matter.

"Thanks but no thanks."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"How sad. I put a lot of effort into that sale," he said, not sounding too sad at all. "I would've given you a special price all things considered but I think I was gone most of that night. Making special purchases of my own."

That metaphor was flawed but Alex hadn't want to deviate from the whole sale thing.

"Could've been a souvenir for you," he added, grinning. "Token or something."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

That hurt, but she masked it with a roll of her eyes.

"I have plenty of things Griff's given me. And it's not as if I have to 'remember' him by anything; he lives next door."

The tone asked 'are you retarded?' as well.

"Unless he's moved out."

She let that hang in the air for a moment before she continued.

"I'm assuming he's being dumb with you as well?"

Fiona, all things said, was a smart girl. She wasn't the most practiced when it came to certain parts of human interaction, but she was by no means stupid.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"He hasn't moved out but I wouldn't care at this point if he did," Alex said, casual and easy. He shrugged. "He can go fuck himself for all I care. Or go fuck whoever else he wants to fuck. That'd probably loosen him up, actually."

Even if he was projecting smugness, Alex could let his edgy undercurrents with that whole situation come out, if needed.

"I've got better things to do than to keep tabs on his stupid self."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"Weirdly enough, we're kind of in agreement here," she said, leaning her head to rest it on one fist.

"So were you here just to try and gloat or was there an actual purpose?"

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Gloat." What? It was pretty much why he'd been there. Sure, Griff and he weren't talking but he could live with that. He had other friends. "You could always go fuck someone else, make him jealous. And get some good sex out of it."

Gloat and be crude, apparently. Equal opportunity.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"Because having him jealous worked out so well the last time," she said with a deep sigh.

"Not interested. But thank you for the advice."

She actually managed a little laugh as she leaned back in her chair.

"I'd apologize for not being as amusing as you were probably hoping for, but I'm not going to cry over the fact that he's being a jerk. Not even for you."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"I really don't care if he's being a jerk to me and I wasn't here looking for your apologies or your tears." he said, shaking his head. "Only makes me sad I didn't think to sell his shit earlier and I only had one taker. Little bitch probably deserved it. I guess your little vacation changed him, didn't it?"

Sorry, Griff. It was true. At least, Alex thought it was true. He knew he was throwing blame here but it was easier than thinking he'd done anything. And it made his jerk self feel better.

[life_inshadow]

It seemed like a good week for Tara to check in on Fiona at work. Even if she hadn't heard radio (and she had) it was hard to miss that something was wrong.

So here she was, wandering into the law offices. "Hey," she said. "So my turn to give you something." She held up a small moss agate pendant from the store. Picking crystals was always a vague science, but somehow agate felt like what Fiona needed.

Also, it was pretty. Which was nice.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

Fiona looked up, a little startled to see her roommate and then, to get a present. But it was pretty.

"Oh. Um. Thank you."

She reached out and took the agate, smiling just a little.

"What--"

And she pointed. What had prompted this? was the unasked question.

[life_inshadow]

Tara tucked her hair back. "Radio," she murmured. "I mean, about you and Griff."

Plus, she lived with Fiona. And she saw auras. It wasn't that hard to pick up on when something was wrong.

"The stone's -- sort of a general thing for luck and strength."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She looked away.

"Oh. Yeah. Thanks."

But her fingers were curling up into a fist on the desk. She was hurting, yes, but she was also angry.

Even then, the whole thing just seemed--

She actually laughed, even if it was a hollow, unhappy sound.

"Everyone's checking up on me today. My dad just called a few minutes ago."

[life_inshadow]

"No problem." Tara's eyes widened a bit at the fist and at Fiona's laughter. She knew what she'd say to most people in this situation, more or less, but Fiona was sometimes not 'most people.'

"... what did he have to say?"

It seemed like a safe place to start. The fact they were talking about the devil was not lost on Tara. But, then, the devil seemed to be a nicer guy than Tara's very mortal actual father.

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"He just wanted to know what was wrong. I told him we could talk later."

She swallowed visibly and shook her head before lifting her hair to put the necklace on; she wasn't wearing the sapphire if only because she was reasonably sure it might make the temptations she'd been feeling worse.

"How's Kennedy?" she asked, trying to change the topic.

[life_inshadow]

"She's uh, good." Tara was blushing a tiny bit. "Really happy not to be a hedgehog."

She watched Fiona fasten the chain and -- "I get it, if you don't want to talk about stuff at work."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She shook her head as she got it done.

"No, it's not that. It's just... I don't know what to talk about. I don't know what to say. It hurts? I'm angry? That's just so useful."

[life_inshadow]

Tara managed a tiny smile. "I don't think you really need to be useful right now. You were with him on and off since -- before I got here? I think?"

Six months. Wow. Tara and Kennedy were still working on two.

She sat in one of the spare chairs in the office. "You were in Thailand with him not even a week ago."

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

She nodded and finally looked up. Her eyes were, well, just a little wet, not that she'd admit that to anyone.

"We've kind of... yeah. Mostly on. Sometimes just confused. We're not good at talking about certain stuff, so sometimes things exploded."

[life_inshadow]

"Ohhhhhh," Tara exhaled, looking concerned and politely ignoring the moisture in Fiona's eyes. "So -- you finally talked and it went kerflooey?"

[cutsthestrings.livejournal.com]

"I was trying to tell him that when he was ready to deal with it, I'd be there. That he shouldn't ignore that there was something wrong. By the end, he was just saying things to hurt me. And taking everything the wrong way."

She gave a short snort.

"Then he ran away. Left me to... to 'foist' my love on someone else."