Room 313- Tuesday morning

[solo_sword]

Jaina had slept great when she'd been back home, and the first night back in her own room had practically been a relief. So it was disappointing to actually manage to sleep in later than she had been, only to wake up from more bad dreams. She wasn't pleased to have to come to grips with the fact that the cabins were just a trigger for them, and not the cause, but so sue her for being hopeful that it'd all get better immediately.

She was in an okay mood because she was busy repressing. She hadn't even gone straight for training for once, though she was dressed for it as she sat at her desk, going over some of the pieces of flimsi and other info she'd brought back from home. Real repression today meant making her brain work on anything else.


[Meanwhile I can't believe I'm wide awake this early again. Post is open if you're good with SP, door is closed but knockable.]

Comments

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Hopefully the phone was ring-able or John would be waiting on the other end for quite a while.

It was okay, he had the time since they were waiting on Wallace's ankle to heal. John would just make his model F-15 zoom over his desk while the phone tried to connect to Fandom.

[solo_sword]

Without looking, Jaina picked up her phone, half expecting it to be work. "Solo," she answered, putting the flimsi down.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I thought I wasn't supposed to call you that," John returned, setting the little plane on his desktop.

[solo_sword]

Oh, look, immediate change in mood to a happier one. "You didn't," she said. "I did."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well it's only a step away," John pointed out happily enough. "Expecting your worker bees to check in?"

[solo_sword]

"I have worker bees now?" she asked, amused. "Yeah, I made some calls last night that haven't been returned, so I figured they'd start getting back to me sometime this morning. I'm glad it's you instead."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well, it's better than calling them your drones," he replied. "So you're sitting around waiting for calls?"

[solo_sword]

"Not really waiting. I was going to head off to the gym but I got caught up in reading some stuff. See, it's not sad," she assured him. "What are you up to over there?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I'm actually waiting around, myself. These guys are dropping left and right," John complained.

[solo_sword]

"Dropping how?" she asked cautiously, hoping that meant something like 'they suck and get kicked out' rather than 'another one died.'

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"This last one's a sprained ankle," John sighed. "Before it was twisted knees and concussions - always accidental and never during any actual conflict with an enemy. Though I kind of wonder if I should've inflicted some to make myself feel better."

[solo_sword]

"How did these people end up with you?" she wondered, sort of peeved on his behalf. "I mean, come on, you should be getting a team that doesn't accidentally concuss itself."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I'm just a lucky guy," John said with a sigh. "And here, I'm kind of the new guy. I don't know." He missed his team and pretty much hated his job after however many weeks of this.

[solo_sword]

"I'm sorry," she said, hating that she couldn't hug him through the phone. She just honestly thought he deserved better than anything that would make him sigh like that. "Any way I can help? Is there anyone I can throttle for you?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it's fine," John promised. "I'm actually looking at getting out of here for a while." It was the sort of plan he really ought to share with her and yet was afraid to because it had been a very long time since they'd spent serious, consecutive amounts of time together, on the same time schedule.

[solo_sword]

"Oh? Where are you thinking of?" She might have also been wondering if this meant she could get in a visit. Because it had been a very long time since they'd been able to get more than that.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well, I was thinking of giving teaching a try..." Yes, it was weird but not the weirdest thing Fandom had experienced.

[solo_sword]

"Teaching," she repeated, turning the idea over in her head. Yeah, it was weird, but she actually thought he could pull it off. "What, like new recruits?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"More like the uh, teens of Fandom?" John waited for her reaction, not knowing what to expect.

[solo_sword]

Jaina paused, not wanting to get too hopeful in case she'd heard him wrong, or snapped and just started to hear what she wanted to or something. "Seriously?"

Okay, she sounded hopeful. Apparently she couldn't help that.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Seriously," John repeated. "Even if I'm a terrible teacher, it'd beat working with a team of goons. And since Atlantis isn't an option..."

[solo_sword]

"As much as I want to hit people for your current assignment," Jaina said, unable not to smile, "I love where it's led your thinking."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Good, then you won't be upset I didn't tell you until it was set," John replied quickly. "I'm glad for that. And really, I look forward to the picnic. I remember the food..."

[solo_sword]

And again she wished she was in the same room as him, because that warranted some playful swatting. "Remember anything else about it?" she asked, curious as to what he'd say.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Um..." John had to really think back. "I vaguely remember wandering around young and shirtless." Yeah, that wouldn't be happening now that he had a whole lot more hair than when he was sixteen.

[solo_sword]

"You might want to skip that part. They might frown on teachers doing that." Might. She honestly didn't know. "Shirtlessness can be made up for afterward."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"You know...I hadn't considered if that would be a problem," John realized. "They could frown on you."

[solo_sword]

"I doubt it," she said, figuring it couldn't hurt to tell him what she'd been thinking, too. "I've been leaning towards moving out of the dorms anyway. No one would have any reason to frown on me."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Where were you planning on living?" John wondered. Maybe she'd made friends with a townie while he was gone.

[solo_sword]

"I don't know yet. I haven't started looking, but I figure there's got to be an apartment available in town somewhere," she said. "I'm not really a hotel person, but I guess a room in one of the houses would be okay? Can you tell I haven't put a ton of thought into it other than getting out of the war room?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"So...you'd give up a perfectly good room for a summer living with townies?" It sounded odd to John.

[solo_sword]

"I need a change," she said, doing some sighing of her own. "And I don't know, I'm a couple weeks out from another birthday while who knows how many incoming freshmen might end up living next door to me, and I just feel too old to be here. Besides, they'd kick me out at the end of the summer anyway. Leaving the dorms means getting to leave on my terms when I'm ready."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Jaina...you could've gone home already. Started that whole life after Fandom thing." Truth be told, he'd never really understood her staying.

[solo_sword]

"I know. Don't think I haven't been tempted a few times," she admitted. "Staying just felt like something I had to do for me. And as of this call I'm honestly glad I've stayed. But I'm just not done here yet. That's really what it boils down to."

The fact that she was beginning to realize some things about how she was handling the dreams was pretty much proof of that.