Re: O'Brien, Leah
"Yep. A Lioness," he nodded. "That fits you perfectly," He really couldn't help but smile at her, no matter what, these days. Well-- except for the times when she said not-so-noce things to him. Sometimes she even got to him, no matter how carefree he tried to be. He couldn't always just let it be water off his back.Wait-- did that make him a duck? Nooo... He wasn't a duck. He didn't know what he was, but it probably wasn't as cool as a lioness.
His smile fell when hers did, and he bit at his lip again, giving a single nod, acknowledging her plea, this time. Alright, so the conversation was over. But only because he caught that look in her eye. Must have been a touchy subject, and the last thing that O'Brien wanted to do was hurt Leah in any way. He could tell that whatever it was that made her want to end the conversation was something that could lead to that, if he tried to press any further, so he stopped.
He shrugged at her response to his 'I don't beg comment', and reached for some of the freeze dried ice cream. Chocolate. Which tasted oddly like a combination of an old Tootsie Roll, unsweetened cocoa powder, and chalk. But yes, he went back for a second piece before turning his attention back to Leah.
O'Brien felt that way too in many cases. If you wanted something done-- and done right, you had to do it yourself.That was why he'd made the bad decisions to go out on his own to find antibiotics. So could she really blame him?
He smiled lightly and nodded, taking another bite of the freeze dried ice cream, his eyes moving back to the table to consider the supposed strawberry flavor. Maybe he'd try that next. But anyway, yes. Of course Leah would focus on the part of the conversation that was fairly irrelevant. "I wouldn't want to get stuck in Central Park either." Alright. He'd let it go, this time.
And for the record, no, it wasn't a fair question at all-- but he liked having someone to talk to, and if Miss Machete was going to give him the time of day, and he was trying to get her to talk to him, how could he not answer her questions? And besides that, he didn't really mind like she did.
His brows lifted a bit at the question, and he thought a moment as he selected another piece of the freeze dried ice cream. The strawberry had tasted like bubblegum and Alka Seltzer... Now he was curious to see what the vanilla flavor tasted like. He shrugged gently, once he'd picked up a piece, and turned his attention back to her, "that's a very good question." He dropped his gaze to the ice cream, thinking another brief moment.
"And no, no.. that's okay." He lifted his eyes back up to her, "I don't mind." But where to even begin? "Most of my family lives in Missouri. That's where I'm from," though, he was raised in both Missouri and New Jersey. "So after everything, you know, went to shit, I talked The Rookie into going with me to Kansas to try and find them. My family, I mean. By the time we made it there, I don't know. I can't say whether or not they made it our or not. It was hard to tell. We stayed there for a while with some neighbors on their farm." Until bad things happened there, and they had to get the hell out. "When I got shot, we'd only been back in Manhattan for about three days. I never was able to find any of my family. But I like to believe they're alright somewhere," He smiled hopefully at the idea and lifted his gaze back up to Leah. "I hope they're alright. And if not all of them, at least most. Or even some.. Especially my nieces and nephews. They're good kids." He had fun with them, whenever he'd visit for the holidays.
He let her take his hand to set the camera back into it, and smiled with amusement, "you're still going to help me, though, right?" He wanted her to.