InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "OH NOES!"

Charles Elwood (celwood) wrote in genome_project,
@ 2011-05-26 23:56:00

Entry tags:

may 2011

Who: Charles and Bethany Elwood
What: Working from home
Where: Elwood house
When: Early evening
Rating: G

They said that DC was beautiful at this time of year. Of course, in order to confirm or deny such an observation, one would have to be at least quasi-interested in enjoying one's surroundings.

The week-long trip Charles had taken there, however, had not been for leisure. Since returning home the previous day, he had considered, rather briefly, recounting the business trip to his wife - but this was not the sort of conversation that he wanted to have when there were still important issues to wrap up. It was quite possible that neither of them would appreciate the discussion anyway, and though he had attempted a passable gesture of reconciliation before he'd left, he hadn't put any real faith in it lasting; that would have been foolhardy. As a matter of convenience, he hadn't tried again.

The quietness that had now seeped through the lower floor of the Elwood residence was the clearest indication that he was still focused on his work. Granted, he periodically had his moments of solitude and quiet: it wasn't unusual for him to enjoy the serenity of an evening by listening to Scarlatti's sublime notes playing in the background, often accompanied by the clink of a glass topped with Château Lafite. But there had decidedly been no sign of these proclivities during the last few hours.

Sitting at the desk in front of his laptop secluded away in the study room, not a word had been spoken, not a request made to the rest of the house. The impassive look in his eyes and the casual, almost languid movement of his hand over the keyboard somewhat belied the importance of what he was currently doing, namely, exchanging follow-up emails with several of the representatives he had met in DC. He was taking his time, words picked and artfully composed like a true diplomat whose hand never faltered. Deliberation when it came to such matters, after all, was always necessary.

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future_ex
2011-05-27 02:54 am UTC (link)

In truth, Charles' trips were almost relaxing around the Elwood house where Emily could have her birthday camping trip last weekend without the worry of coming home to her father there. Even Bethany had enjoyed the opportunities to just play her cello without hearing that she was being distracting. Which, depending on her mood at the time could lead to a sudden change from Bach to Bachman Turner Overdrive. "Taking Care of Business" lost something in the translation, but the effect of being more distracting was achieved if only for a minute. Then came his return and she knew better than to expect to hear about the cherry blossoms and the weather. Sure, the weather was getting better here, but it was hard to say if that was just normal or Emily's doing.

Today she had just been keeping quiet, taking what she couldn't wash to the dry cleaners and had been doing laundry ever since getting home from work. Simon had gone to play with a friend and would be home before it was time to eat. Dinner had been in the crockpot most of the day to make things easier, but she was looking forward to the weekend. If his car hadn't been there though, she likely wouldn't have even known Charles was home. There was something in the air though, really self-imposed, that made her stand a little straighter when he was around. she brushed her hair back behind her shoulder before knocking on the door of the study to announce her presence. "Will you be joining us for dinner or should I just bring you a plate?"

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celwood
2011-05-27 02:29 pm UTC (link)

His wife's phrasing did not slip past him unnoticed. Us. It occurred to him, then, that he had little idea of where his daughter or stepson were right then, and only knew about his wife's location for the unavoidable fact she was right outside his door. Familial duty would have seen him taking his place at the head of the table to rectify this, were it not for the need to finish his emails, and he would not be satisfied until he did. As it was, he declined with a statement of, "A plate will be sufficient."

Perhaps that might have been the end of the conversation. Another day, it was almost certain to be. But as he set his hand in the space beside his keyboard, eyes on the screen, his concentration had been momentarily drawn off. He had spoken to others in the Project recently with regards to various matters, but had rarely found it necessary to do so with Bethany (and the advice she gave him was only ever marginally helpful). Nonetheless. She'd been in the position to oversee the island for a week when he had not.

"Come in for a minute," he called out, permitting her within the room in which the decor was modern, yet in all its simple elegance still managed to be understated. "We have several things to discuss."

Hopefully it would be simple enough.

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future_ex
2011-06-01 04:17 am UTC (link)

Bethany nodded a little bit. Perhaps she could still negotiate something here like trying to get him out of there before he tried to go off to bed. Even if it was just the evening news he should be socializing with other people and not have his only communication with his family all week involve periods that lasted all of 30 seconds at a time. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, she was fairly sure that he did need to get some sort of relationship with his children where the declarations of eternal hate from his kids stuck for more than a few weeks. Maybe that had hurt her more than it would have hurt him if anyone ever got up the nerve to proclaim they hated him. Then those who did probably had divorce papers right now.

Which was still the first thought that went to her mind when he asked her to come in. The "how soon do you think you can have your things packed up and be out of here" talk. She slowly let her hand slid from the door frame as she headed in. She remained standing though in front of the desk rather than taking a seat. It was unlikely this would really last long. "Do any of these things involve spending some time with Emily and to make sure she and I don't already have plans for the weekend?"

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celwood
2011-06-01 11:50 am UTC (link)

With barely an upward flick of his eyes which immediately settled on Bethany, outward appearance showed that he paid little heed to what she had said. It was not the case.

Inwardly, he felt the stirring of cold tension returning along the steely lines of his shoulders in record time. It was a simple question, on the surface of it, but he'd heard the like of it far too many times and let it tip off too many volatile arguments than to believe she asked without any accusation lurking behind it. Difficult to know if she had dedicated herself to the great hours she spent belittling his sense of paternal undertakings, or if it was just an irritatingly natural knack, but he never appreciated having them questioned. As if he wouldn't have liked a request to his daughter - and always his daughter, whatever she said about him - for time together to be met with easy acceptance.

His initial reaction was to therefore tell his wife any variant of 'be quiet' and cut that potential direction of conversation off in its birth. But since he had decided she might have some minimal important discussion inside her, he instead gave her a to-the-point answer that was, at least, an honest one.

"No. These involve how things are going at the school."

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future_ex
2011-06-01 05:57 pm UTC (link)

The not actually arguing about it even in forced civil tones was slowly going to drive her crazy. It was little wonder that he often left her just wanting to scream in order to get it all out and go one with her usual routine. It didn't seem that difficult to her for him to actually attempt being a father rather than a slave driver like she felt him do with Evan. Bethany just took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly through her nose while running her fingers through her hair to try and make it look less messy. It seemed less obvious that way that he was getting under her skin.

She had to think for a while though to even try to figure out what he was talking about for sure. The big spring concert had been weeks ago so she had most of her students working on their performance solos for finals. There hadn't been anything truly unusual going on above and beyond some freshman all being trading bodies. Even that had been shortly before he left. Bethany finally left it with a small shrug mostly to herself. "Everything at the high school seems to be going smoothly as usual. Emily's camping trip didn't involve anyone almost dying, and pretty much everyone is ready for summer to be here. Myself included." Undoubtedly he had something else about it he wanted to know, but it was a start.

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celwood
2011-06-03 12:07 am UTC (link)

Good. Whenever nothing out of the ordinary happened, specifically the lack of anyone almost dying, there was distinctly less paperwork to organize.

"Hm... I may need that in writing." Nothing about his deadpan tone, nor the humorless disposition that he possessed around her, suggested he was being anything less than serious. There was certainly no glint of mirth in his glance as he turned back to his laptop; all that manifested in his expression, then, was a flicker of consideration toward the work in progress. "The damn liberals in DC are annoyingly insistent to hear more about the students' level of education, and at this point, input from anyone who works in the school's vicinity would be desirable." And the slight inflection he appointed to the word anyone implied that he would take assistance from even an orchestra teacher. "Test scores, passes, any behavioral trends over the last year. The usual."

He leaned back in the austere black wood chair, only enough to comfortably shift his elbows, and then he cast a look at Bethany.

"So, if you could temporarily defer from screeching on your cello and agonizing over which summer bikini to start wearing, I'd like you to do something useful and compile a few statistics for me by the weekend."

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future_ex
2011-06-03 04:45 pm UTC (link)

"I'll have it filled out in triplicate and on your desk before bed." Which he would only be seeing in his dreams considering she was sure he didn't have a memory of a goldfish. There was almost a salute or at least rolling her eyes, but she just rested her hands on the back of a chair. Which was good considering she was soon gripping on to it. At first it just sounded like he wanted just a verbal report of what she knew. Not a full report in two days of trends and anything about their educational system. It was true she was one of the few that had a class that could generally take care of itself. That didn't give him the right in her opinion to put it the way he did.

Her knuckles were turning white from holding onto the chair just to keep her tone even. Yelling at this point would only kill her point that she wasn't some hormonal teenager to talk down to. "First of all, at no point to I ever agonize over a bikini considering I don't even like the beach." A husband dying from drowning in that water plus her general red hair leading to severe burning could be blamed for that. "So secondly, perhaps I will if you ask me like an adult instead of one of your children and don't forget to say please." Though really it likely wouldn't matter how he put it. She would go take her frustration with him out with some loud music on her iPod (with headphones likely since she didn't want to disturb Emily). After calming down would come the hours of work trying to compile something that she would likely lose sleep over just to make sure it was everything he had asked for and a bit more.

Likely only to brace herself to hear that her magnus opus of a report was satisfactory and would do the job but only barely.

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celwood
2011-06-03 11:16 pm UTC (link)

A quiet breath resembling a sigh passed his lips in the wake of that flimsy attempt of what could loosely be called a threat. For all their fickleness, women could always be trusted to drag business down to a tedious debate of civilities.

Whether he stooped to please and thank you, at the current moment, was irrelevant, and so he didn't deign to offer them - especially now she had made a fuss about it. The report was needed either way, and if she didn't comply, then he would simply ask elsewhere. Not that being forced to go the extra mile to contact one of the other teachers would be without its consequences for her, and he was never one for half-measures.

"Wouldn't it be inconvenient if it was to reach the right ears that you'd refused to cooperate with me, again," was his prompt reply, and one which he considered to be unarguable. Because there was no adequate comeback that could hope to stand up against the significant influence that came with the position he had worked his way up to, unless she was actively trying to be relocated to the other side of the island with the possibility of leaving her son behind. "It might even be thought that you were starting to let your responsibilities here slide."

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[[Don't worry about the double post. :)]]

future_ex
2011-06-04 02:51 am UTC (link)

Had she the upper body strength to toss the chair at him, Bethany might have gone ahead and done it. However she was both a woman without a great amount of strength nor one that had ever been personally given the genome for her own child. Thus she couldn't even use telekinesis to make his papers go flying every where. "My responsi-" She mad herself keep composure enough to go over and close the door. It wasn't the safest to discuss anything of the sort when Simon or Emily could come wandering in for some reason. "My responsibilities around here have never stretched to giving the kids any less of an education for a couple of of senators who still think 'No Child Left Behind' is a good practice. Even the way things are around here there's no true test of how well they're doing compared to their peers in other parts of the state or country because everything that goes through here is edited. The replacement questions could even be more difficult than what they have in the standard high schools. But don't worry, that will also go in my report." She'd do it, but clearly not happily.

"Those responsibilities have also included keeping this entire island from having a repeat of last spring and the hurricane Emily caused. Over a stupid boy that she's already almost forgotten, but these are teenagers with super powers that they aren't completely in control. So while you might think I just go and play with screeching stringed instruments, I have also put my education to use trying to keep the number of accidents and deaths down from powers that go out of control by finding a safer outlet." Though right now she was almost ready to ask Macy Jones over for dinner if it wouldn't traumatize the poor girl all the more to kill someone else with her golden touch.

She released the chair and went to head back to the door. "So if there is nothing else, I have a dinner that is potentially going to burn and will have it done by Saturday morning." Which was followed by a string of swear words in her head, 90% of which he probably wouldn't have understood anyhow unless he had started taking Hebrew.

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Re: [[Don't worry about the double post. :)]]

celwood
2011-06-04 09:30 am UTC (link)

Charles remained silent while she spoke. He didn't follow her with her eyes, but he listened. Whatever was going on inside his head, it wasn't showing in anything about him.

When she was done delivering her over-dramatic diatribe, an inward smirk touched the frozen blue wastes in his eyes. Despite the friction that came far too easily these days, it was oddly amusing that she thought to lecture him of the education state and her role within it. He'd been in the room during those days when they were establishing the system itself, and he had his ways of staying informed of her progress. Ways that didn't necessarily involve asking her.

Still, he didn't regret assigning her to the task. The everyday observation of students learning in their school environment was emphatically not a part he wanted to experience himself. It could be said that being everywhere at once was impossible. It could also be said that he didn't have much patience for being swarmed by adolescents who were riddled with too many hormones and unproductive tendencies. Naturally, he wanted his own to be better than that.

On that note, there was, in fact, one more thing...

"The camping trip went well, then?"

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future_ex
2011-06-05 09:34 pm UTC (link)

Again she wasn't really getting anywhere with him as far as she could tell. The music was definitely going to be needed as soon as she was out of there if she didn't just get Emily and Simon and tell them they were going out for dinner. It would be nice to just be able to relax again. Maybe she should have invested in a gym membership that involved a very large punching bag. It seemed more likely though that she would just end up hurting herself. Bethany was not a woman built for hitting things. Then it would probably please him if she couldn't play her cello any more.

Bethany just sighed though and just kept a hand on the door frame. "As far as I can tell the worst thing to happen is a little bit of sunburn and bug bites." Kids around here were far too secretive still. She had to be one of the few though that had a personal confession of a power that she didn't need to read everything else in order to find out. "Congratulations, you're not going to be a grandfather yet."

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celwood
2011-06-06 09:43 am UTC (link)

His brow lifted an almost imperceptible amount and his inward smirk faded at the not-a-grandfather remark. Just as well that it was still true, and he didn't like even the insinuation that Emily might have been in a situation where that could have changed. Both his children had more important things in hand than to be distracted by producing offspring, and though he had hopes they'd experience it someday, he would like to avoid a moment when he bloodily caved in the face of any boy who was careless enough to put his daughter in such a state, at such a time.

There was additionally the matter that Charles would have hated to admit that he was married to a grandmother. A thought that was best if it were compartmentalized and left in the darkest, most securely-locked recess of his mind where it wouldn't see the light for a very long time.

"She enjoyed her birthday?"

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future_ex
2011-06-07 02:40 am UTC (link)

Seemingly there was something about the term "dinner" and "burning" he hadn't quite gotten. She still waited, avoiding tapping her finger nails. She was fairly sure that it was her mother's voice in her head reminding her that people who lingered in doorways would never get anywhere. Maybe she was right, at least with Charles. She was getting nowhere quickly.

There was a pause though as she considered the question and biting back her initial response. Of course she had. There was a key member missing on her special day. "The party went well. Not quite the extravaganza of last year, but you still only turn 16 once." True, she had turned her step daughter into a pink cupcake. Emily had still looked good even with the different hair color. "Just friends having a meal at the country club, but I only reserved the small private room." It was always nice that he could rarely complain about her spending habits. After all, it was her money.

There were other things, but she was keeping those to herself for now. She could keep her secrets just as well as he could, at least some of the time. "Anything else?"

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celwood
2011-06-07 09:52 am UTC (link)

On the other hand, it was safe to assume that anything Charles had to say would be neither lengthy nor involved enough to be a real threat to whatever culinary monstrosity was currently suffering its last minutes in the oven.

After the room fell into a few seconds of loaded silence, it didn't take effort to read between the lines in what Bethany continued to say. He briefly wondered if she was aware that opinionating how he didn't see his children enough, while at the same time deciding they were better off without him there - and for all he knew, telling them so behind his back, was a very nonsensical strategy. The irony of it was that if she had truly believed what she said was the best for everyone, and stood by him to present a united front rather than instantly side with them in even the trivial issues, he would have at least acknowledged her argument. However, it had long since become apparent to him that such rationality didn't often factor into her behavior.

He didn't bother to ask whether Emily had got the birthday present he'd left for her. There was no need, as he'd ensured she had, and Bethany didn't seem to be in much of a sharing mood anyway. Fine with him, since usually it was getting her to stop clucking in his ear that was the problem. What he did, instead, was finally glance back to his laptop and lean forward in his chair once more. Clearly, he was resuming his work and thus dismissing her, when she could return to murdering food.

"Yes," he affirmed without looking up again. "Stop looking so miserable. You're bringing down the mood of the whole house."

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future_ex
2011-06-08 04:33 pm UTC (link)

Any other time she might have argued with his analysis. He was locking himself away in his little office and then going to lecture her about being miserable? Even some sarcastic comment about the actual house having a mood. She just brushed her hair back with her fingers and looked back at him. She could be calm or at least attempt the appearance of it. Her stomach on the other hand just felt like it was tying itself into knots to see how long before she had to rush to a bathroom.

He was a bully as far as she could tell. Instead of lunch money he just stole their sense of security and self-respect. Every minute she could about feel counting down to a moment that she wouldn't know was at zero until it was there. She had plenty of reasons for looking miserable. If she could manage even one more year she might feel better. Emily would be out of school and getting on with her life somewhere other than this house. She had another question suddenly, but it could wait. Bethany just pulled the door closed behind her before she made the idiotic mistake of saying something else.

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