Isabelle "Izzy" Shaw (izzy_shaw) wrote in low_tide, @ 2010-01-01 12:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | isabelle shaw, jenny lowe |
Coffee talk
Sometimes life just wasn't fair. Izzy had come to that conclusion years ago but recent events served to reinforce it.
Christmas had been a disaster. She'd gotten a family in this dimension, one where her previous self had grown up in wealth and privilege, but one that was completely dysfunctional.
The witch tried not to think about it too much as she stood in line at her favorite coffee shop for her daily mocha and muffin. There wasn't anything she could do about her family right now and if she kept thinking about it she would only get depressed.
Jenny, too, felt more than anything that life wasn't fair. She was late getting off on her lunch break and as such she was rushing to get to her favorite coffee shop. She could have waited at the Starbucks outside the hospital, but she really didn't like the way that they made the coffee, or their cakes, for that matter.
Flustered as she was, when she got into the store and realized that she still had her stethoscope around her neck and her long white coat on - she'd have to change it when she got in, they weren't supposed to wear them outside the hospital for hygiene reasons, but sometimes it just couldn't be helped.
Jennifer Lowe needed coffee, doctor or not. Otherwise she'd never make it through the rest of her shift.
Preoccupied, her feet stopped moving when she reached the queue, but the rest of her body didn't quite get with the program and she lost her balance, flailing a little before one hand landed on the flat glass counter-cover that housed all the yummy looking cakes, and the other hand landed square on the back of whoever it was that was standing in front of her.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry," she started, trying to regain her balance without flailing even more and making herself look completely incompetent in every kind of way.
Izzy felt herself shoved forward a step by the hand landing on her back and she turned around to snap at whoever had done the deed. Seeing a young woman a bit older than herself in doctor's garb, one about to fall right on her rear unless something was done, Izzy instead reached over to help the brunette out.
"That's all right, it happens." The witch told the other woman once she was certain that she wasn't going to fall over. "I've been known to get too focused sometimes myself."
Jenny gave a sheepish smile and found her balance again, rubbing the back of her neck and fiddling with one end of her stethoscope. She should have taken that off, at least. God, where was her head today (she knew the answer to that question: with the dead John Doe, but since when did she actually want to admit that)?
"I'm a better doctor than I am pedestrian," she reassured, eyeing the board above the cashiers till. Coffee coffee coffee.
She gave her rescuer a warm smile. "Jenny." She held out her hand, "Promise I'm not gonna fall on you again." It was nice to talk to people. She certainly needed it, and more than likely this young woman did too, after all, it was just after Christmas and it was kind of a sucky holiday for a lot of people, for all the love that was going around - apparently.
"Izzy," the blonde shook the offered hand and smiled back. "I'll hold you to that!" She wasn't working today, and was dressed informally in jeans and long sleeve t-shirt in anticipation of losing herself in techno-magic tinkering later on.
"What's your favorite?" She asked, gesturing toward the menu posted on the wall behind the counter.
"Nice to meet you," Jenny offered before she leaned against the counter. Her eyes slid over the choices again before she was distracted by the muffins and slices of cake that looked like they should be oozing tooth decay. They looked good, gross mental imagery aside.
She tilted her head, blocking out the sudden surge of noise in the shop. Her fingers brushed her temple and then she gave another sheepish smile. "Anything with caffeine, I'll admit." She chewed her lower lip for a moment, "But today I'm going for a classic: Cappuccino with a double shot because I've got a long day ahead of me and coffee makes everything better."
There was a pause. "God, that makes me sound like either an addict or a really bad doctor, or both." She groaned. "Not having a good day so far!"
"I never would have gotten through college without large amounts of coffee," Izzy told her new friend. "I don't see how a doctor could avoid becoming a coffee addict what with the hours you work. Besides, of all the things to be addicted to, coffee is pretty tame." Compared to cocaine, for example.
It was finally her turn and Izzy stepped forward to order a caramel mocha and blueberry muffin, which was an enormous thing easily twice the size of muffins she'd seen in the grocery store. "We all have bad days," she offered after placing her order and standing off to the side.
"That we do, and sometimes you get stuck with a whole string of them." She listened to the order Izzy had made and smiled. "And yeah, coffee's a far better addiction to have than crack." She winked and waited for someone behind the counter to stop whirring machines and making a lot of noise before she made her own order; Cappuccino with a double shot, cinnamon and chocolate sprinkles on top and a double chocolate chip cookie.
She patted down her pockets to find her money, fingers slipping into the pocket of her coat to produce some small notes. "Money's always a good start," she offered to Izzy, paying and moving to stand beside the younger woman. "So, if it's not a rude question, what do you do for a living?"
"Not rude at all," Izzy shook her head. "I work at the Hyatt Resort over on Front Street, I'm a concierge there." It wasn't her ideal job, but it was one that this dimension's version of herself was trained for as far as starting on a career path. Besides, it was a challenge, something outside the normal comfort zone for the blonde techno-mage.
"How about you?" She gestured at the doctor's coat and stethoscope. "I mean, obviously I know what your profession is unless you're on your way to a costume party, but what's your specialty?"
Her order came up and she eagerly took up the mocha and her muffin, the latter fresh from the microwave since she'd requested it warm.
Jenny nodded, interested in Izzy's job. "That sounds cool, though I bet you get a lot of customers that are just not worth it, right? As you do in any kind of job where you're providing a service to the public." Usually it sucked, sometimes it was rewarding, but Jenny could imagine how sucky the customers must get sometimes if they didn't get their room service on time and all that.
Curling her hand around the cup as it was presented to her, Jenny just took a deep breath of the coffee and a sip, feeling the liquid burn down her throat before she answered the question. "I work in the ER mostly. I graduated from Med School in the summer, so I- yeah, I'm finding my feet. I'm a general consultant on the main wards too."
Her chest tightened a little, thoughts drifting back to John Doe briefly, and the young kid that came in not that long ago.
Her cookie appeared on a plate a moment later and Jenny was forced to release her two-handed grip on the coffee as she accepted the plate. She thanked the young server, someone working whilst not at college, probably, and moved away from the counter. "You wanna grab a seat? Unless you're not in the habit of sitting down with strangers. I do it a lot, so it doesn't bother me, but I know not everyone's quite as... foolish?" She gave a smile and tipped her head for Izzy to follow her towards a table if she so wished.
"Sometimes customers can be a pain," the witch acknowledged at Jenny's question. "But that comes with the job and you just have to suck it up and deal with it. They're paying customers and it doesn't matter if they're idiots or not. Doesn't mean they don't drive me crazy sometimes, but I just have to smile and try to help with whatever it is they need."
"You work at the ER? Really?" That's pretty neat, you probably get to see all kinds of things through the ER. It should help you later on in your career." Izzy was impressed, emergency medicine was no picnic.
The blonde smiled and nodded at the other woman's suggestion as she moved toward a nearby table. "We're already talking to each other, and I don't want to stand and eat. We might as well sit down." She slid into a waiting chair and placed her drink and the plate holding the muffin on the table. A quick sip of the mocha had Izzy close her eyes briefly. "That's the stuff!"
"Customer is always right and all that, I worked in retail a bit when I was at med school before I realised that there was no way that I could work and study medicine. It just didn't happen. Too time consuming and medicine kinda eats your brain after a while."
Jenny looked a little surprised at the impressed tone of Izzy's voice. "ER's hectic, especially around Christmas and New Year, people kind of go a little... mental. It's like 'how drunk can I get and what can I do that's monumentally stupid' night. I worked on Christmas Day, I'm working New Years... the overtime's worth it, even if I get covered in all kinds of nasty stuff."
She sat down as soon as they'd found a table and put her coffee and cookie down before the coffee was back in her hand like it was attached via a bungee cord, a sweet, sweet caffeinated bungee cord. She took a sip and gave a huge sigh. That was what she needed.
"Sitting is definitely a better plan. Besides, we won't be in the way and there's no way I can trip and spill my coffee everywhere. And coffee stains on white? Never a good look."
"Definitely not," Izzy agreed. "A sloppy looking doctor wouldn't inspire much confidence in me, that's for sure!" She smiled and took a bite out of her muffin. Definitely the right choice today, she decided.
"So what made you decide to do your residency in Key West?" She asked the other woman, curious. "Do they have a good program at the hospital or are you local?"
Jenny's cookie was warm, not too warm, but just enough that the chocolate chips inside were melted. It s going to be a messy lunch hour, but hey, as long as none of it got onto her coat. She tilted her head and laughed, "Yeah... though sometimes the tail end of at fourteen hour shift doesn't lend itself neatly to being all tidy." She took a sip of her coffee, broke her cookie in half, then in half again until it was in small, bite-sized pieces.
"I- uh, I grew up here," Jenny said finally, "My whole family's here. Did my degree elsewhere, graduated and decided to come home." Her mother was sick too, and her brother kept getting into trouble, she couldn't rightly just get up and go anywhere else when her family needed her. "That and it's kinda nice here. What about you? Have you always been a Key West native?"
"No," Izzy replied after swallowing a bite of her muffin. The muffins here really were spectacular, she wondered if the bakers secretly laced them with crack to make them so addictive. "I moved down here after college to work for the Hyatt, not that I'm complaining. Key West is a great place."
Jenny popped another piece of cookie into her mouth. She smiled and rested her elbows on the table-top, coffee cup between her hands. It was warm and it smelt gorgeous, all chocolate-y and cinnamon-y. "Key West is great," Jenny agreed, "Low crime rate... mostly. Though, recently..."
She wondered what had happened recently that meant she had had a sudden influx of men having been attacked somewhat brutally, like gang violence had gotten out of hand and the ER was suffering because of it. "Well, I call it home, came back here after being away so that might say something."
Another sip of coffee and Jenny could feel the caffeine running through her already, coursing through her veins.
"Yeah, that's been worrying lately. I've read in the paper about the murders," Izzy frowned as she thought about the stories she'd read. "The last article I read said that it might be organized crime, gangs or something." Hopefully it would die down soon, Key West was a paradise that didn't need the crime wave. If it got to be too visible it could start to scare off the tourists and cruise ships that had become the town's life-blood.
"You must see some strange things coming through the ER I'd imagine."
"I think there's just something going on in all the underground areas," Jenny offered, rolling her coffee cup between her palms. The heat sank into her hands, feeling the warmth in her bones. It was a gorgeous sensation.
She tipped her head, "No stranger than the things you must see in a hotel, but yeah, I've seen my share of... weird things." Her nose wrinkled a little and she brushed a few hairs back behind her ears. "You won't believe how many people come in having "fallen" on various weird things, ending up with them lodged in places that they shouldn't be."
A laugh escaped Izzy's throat in reaction to Jenny's comment. "'Fallen'? Gods, that's great! I've had some strange requests from guests, and you won't believe how many 'nieces' check in on Thursdays or Fridays with their 'uncles'. I wonder how many end up in your ER before they leave Key West?"
She chuckled and had a sip of her drink.
Jenny chuckled, "Yeah, people are... strange on the whole. I once had a patient with his hand caught in the body of a remote control car. He'd come to us because his fingers were going a funny colour and the guy that bought him in wanted us to use as much gel as we could to get it out. Apparently he'd been trying to drive it with his hand." She figured it wasn't appropriate to mention the time that she'd had a man coming in with a small bird up his ass.
She poked at a piece of her cookie before glancing up at the clock. She still had plenty of time. "I'm sure they do," she smiled, "Get a lot of tourists after drunken nights out and all that."
"I can imagine," Izzy nodded. "Do you want to stay in emergency medicine once you're done with your residency or is there another field of medicine you'd like to get into?"
"I think I'd like to move up to the wards, it's just as hectic, but you get to spend more time with your patients." Jenny hesitated before adding, "I get very attached to them, which isn't always a good thing. But I gotta do a year or so working half and half between the ER and the rest of the hospital before I make a final decision."
She was about halfway through her cookie now, so she paused to focus on the coffee. One thing she really hated was cold coffee, it just seemed unnatural to her. And it tasted kind of gross.
Izzy swallowed another bite of the addictive blueberry muffin. "I can't see how being attached to your patients is a bad thing unless you can't help them, then I can see it being a problem." Getting really attached to a patient only to have them die on you would have a corrosive effect on a doctor's conscience and self esteem, she imagined.
"Does it happen to you often? Getting attached, I mean."
"All the time," Jenny said with a smile that was slightly tinged with sadness. She'd had several patients die on her, and whilst she knew she couldn't have saved them, she still felt like she should have done more. She paused and let her eyes flick up to meet Izzy's. "It's hard when they- when you lose someone, even if you've done your best."
She shrugged, "But that's part of being a doctor, you can't save everyone. Still doesn't make you feel any less like you'd failed." She put the coffee cup down and took another couple of bites of her cookie. "Sometime you just can't help it."
"That would be what makes you a good doctor I guess," Izzy mused. "Feeling like you should have done more even when there's nothing more you could do." That was probably one of the things that helped drive advancements she imagined.
Jenny nodded and rubbed the back of her head. "I guess." She gave another smile. Her cookie was somewhat decimated. She looked up at the time, mentally calculating how long it would take her to get back to the hospital. "Can't imagine you get too attached to anyone at your hotel? Unless you get regulars... do you?"
"I rarely get attached to guests," Izzy smiled. She finished off the muffin and took a sip of her drink to wash it down. "I've only been there since May, after finishing college. Normally I'm too busy, but there was this one older couple. They came in for their fiftieth anniversary and I was tasked with getting them whatever they wanted. It was so sweet, watching how they interacted with each other. You would think they were newlyweds on their honeymoon, and they were so nice to everyone! I almost hated to see them leave."
"We don't get regulars that often, but we do have a few long term guests. We have a gentleman from New York City, for example, he's been here since before Thanksgiving and his room is booked for an open-ended stay."
"That must be expensive, to live in a hotel," Jenny mused around another sip of her coffee. "But- that's sweet," she tipped her head and leaned her elbows on the table again. "About the couple, that is, not the guy from New York City. One day I'd like to- Well, do the whole marriage thing."
Not any time soon, though. She thought she had seen a faint mark on Izzy's finger, where a ring might have been, but didn't say anything because it might have been a sore subject. She was good at avoiding them, tended not to put her foot in her mouth all that much. "As long as you enjoy your job."
"It would be nice to find a love like that," Izzy said somewhat wistfully. The engagement was a sore spot. Mark had been so confused and hurt when she'd told him the wedding was off before coming back to Key West that she'd wanted to cry herself. She wasn't the woman he'd fallen in love with anymore, though, and the idea of being married to him just made her sick to her stomach. They weren't right for each other anymore.
"It's an interesting job, a challenge."
"Fairytale romance and all that." Jenny agreed. She had had a few steady boyfriends in the past, but never got any further than that 'first base' mark considering her power always wandered at the worst possible moment. It was strange the things that some people thought about just before sex. It was also incredibly off-putting and made her run for the hills.
After another long drink of her coffee, Jenny cleared her throat. "That's what you want in a job, something that interests you and challenges you. It's always good; keeps your brain working and all that."
"It definitely does at that." Izzy agreed. "If you'd asked me a few years ago if I'd be in the hotel business I'd have laughed at you, but stranger things have happened." Like waking up in a different dimension in a body five years younger than she'd been the instant before. It was a difficult adjustment for the tech-witch, but one she'd had little choice but to make.
"Stranger things huh? I can agree with you there." Like finding out you're psychic, or that your room-mate's a Slayer. "Life's a weird thing." She believed in Fate, that everyone had a destiny, and sometimes it just took a person a while to find it. "What did you wanna do when you were at college then, if you didn't plan on going into the hotel industry?"
"Um," Well, shit. She couldn't very well say 'My mind is from a different dimension where I was five years older and trained as a mage and engineer'. She wouldn't have believed it if someone had told her, if she hadn't experienced it herself. "I wasn't sure what I wanted to major in when I started school, but ended up in hospitality management." Since it hadn't mattered to her other self, who hadn't planned to work much past getting married anyway. What an airhead!
"I guess I was too focused on partying and social events at first."
Jenny gave a small smile though it faltered pretty quickly when she realised that there was something there, almost a static around Izzy's mind, as if there was a track playing over what should have been there; almost like the mind was hers, but wasn't at the same time. It was a sensation she'd never felt before with all the people she met.
Her eyes narrowed a little in the corners, hand tightening a fraction around her coffee cup. She had wondered what that nagging feeling was. She wet her lower lip and opened her mouth to say something, wondering at the words that were wandering into her mind; a mage? And something about... engineering? "That sounds... cool. I was never much for partying. Didn't leave a lot of time for it after all my studying and stuff."
There was something different in her tone now; almost sounding a little distracted, puzzled by something.
Izzy raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the change in the other woman's demeanor but put it down to revealing how much of an airhead her other self had been. She really hadn't had time for partying in college either, Georgia Tech's Magic Theory degree program had been among the most demanding in the country. Considering she was double majoring and determined to finish in the high upper percentiles she'd barely had time for eating and sleeping, let alone partying like her air-headed alternate had during her college career.
"I guess hospitality management isn't as demanding as pre-med and med school, I can see how you wouldn't have much time for anything else. Not if you wanted to get into a good program."
"No... though believe it or not, when I was at college, it was the med students and the law students that partied the hardest. Whenever there was an opportunity, especially after finals... They had to party hard to blow off steam and all that." Jenny had never really trusted herself around copious amounts of alcohol, just because she'd had a bit too much one night and ended up reading the minds of everyone in the room. It had caused her to black out and she swore she'd never do it again.
She frowned after a moment, "I didn't mean to sound snobbish or anything- I mean, there's nothing wrong with hospitality management- God, I- That sounded awful." She backtracked hastily, not wanting to offend the young woman she was sat with. She tapped her fingers against the Styrofoam cup gently. There was another pause, thoughts from others filtering into her brain too, it was hard for her to focus on keeping the static out long enough. Georgia Tech's Magic Theory? Far as she knew, Georgia Tech didn't have a magic theory class. They didn't teach magic anywhere.
Careful Jennifer. Curiosity killed the cat and gets hot coffee thrown over it and weird looks from nice women in coffee shops....
Instead of being offended, Izzy laughed. So hard that she nearly knocked over what was left of her drink. It was probably more than she should be laughing given that the other woman had inadvertently insulted her career in this dimension, but she agreed with the characterization. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. It might not be as intellectually demanding as medicine, but it does require you to be able to interact with your guests and be able to juggle a lot of different balls in the air at one time."
She much rather the Isabelle in this dimension had been in a technical field rather than customer service, but sometimes it was good to get out of your comfort zone. "What made you decide to be a doctor?"
Jenny looked a little surprised at the reaction before she relaxed, Izzy's laughter being somewhat infectious. She relaxed a little more, leaning back in her eat and having another piece of her massacred cookie. "That's good." And before she could help herself, she added, "How come you didn't go into engineering?" It was a word she'd heard bouncing around for the past few minutes, and the question come of came out before it was censored by her brain.
"Uh, I always wanted to help people. Figured it wouldn't do me any harm to try, didn't think I'd actually get to med school 'cause I had an... interesting childhood, but I kinda won out and I love what I'm doing."
Eyebrows shot up in surprise. Where the hell had that come from? Nobody who knew Isabelle in this dimension would think she'd had the ability for something as rigorous as Engineering. Of course, that was because the woman had never been challenged during her childhood but allowed to just glide through life without incident. "Um, I don't know. I never really had the head for math I guess, and you need math to be an engineer, right?" There, that sounded like something her air-headed other self would have said.
"Interesting childhood? How's that?"
The cover-up of Izzy's words rang in Jenny's head. Even though she had been told something, she- she didn't quite believe what she was hearing, the mind contradicting the mouth. In Jenny's experience, the mind never lied, but the mouth did quite a lot.
"I'm getting the idea that you're not as bad at math as you say," her lips quirked up into a small smile. The thoughts of magic were sincere, not an imagined fancy, and that had piqued the doctor's interest. "Sorry- I-" she rubbed the back of her neck again and then touched her temple with two fingers.
She lifted an eyebrow. She was kind of prying, it was only fair the other woman was given the same privilege. "I was a sick kid." Sick... one way of putting it.
The eyebrows this time lowered as her eyes narrowed, staring at the other woman. Something very strange was going on here. Almost as if...get out of my head! She hadn't encountered a psychic in a long time, since school really. She was going to need to start thinking about a shielding charm, it seemed. There really wasn't any other explanation.
"I can imagine." Izzy figured that if the other woman was physic that her childhood could have been a difficult one indeed in this dimension, especially if she were the first in her family to display the talent. "But at least you channeled it into something good, to help others."
Okay. Jenny had never known anyone able to guess what was going on. She'd never tried to talk to someone mind-to-mind before because it had never really been appropriate. Surface thoughts that people couldn't control drifted into the air like the smell of coffee, or freshly baked bread and Jenny kind of plucked them up without meaning to. She met Izzy's eyes and focused, trying to send I'm not actually in your head. Though she was thrown by the woman's knowledge.
She had definitely been lying about being just a hotel concierge. She chewed her lower lip. "Yeah... so I try and help, use it for good." When it didn't slip out of her control that was, which was more often than not, but it was never intentional. Not usually anyway. John Doe had been a different case; the guy was in a coma, and there really was no code of conduct for psychic doctors. No Hippocratic Oath they could swear. She'd only ever met one other person like her, and even then it was... different.
Damn nosy psychics! Izzy would definitely have to work on some sort of charm to shield her surface thoughts, or at least make them harder for someone to 'hear' from a casual exposure. At least Jenny seemed to be an ok sort, not the type that would use it against her. The witch knew she was overreacting, but she couldn't help herself.
"It's good to see that you were able to overcome your problems. Some people would just give up and not try."
I don't want to talk about this here. Another time maybe. It couldn't hurt to know a psychic, maybe she'd be a good asset for the other white hats to know about.
"Mm," Jenny agreed before she tilted her head at Izzy. Okay, another time could work. It would be nice to talk to someone who apparently knew a little about it. It was more than anyone else in Jenny's life and most of her friends - the few she had - had their own problems. After all, Kris had just discovered she had a huge destiny, and that wasn't something that Jenny begrudged her being freaked out over, not at all. Poor woman.
She nodded. "Sound good." She switched back to the verbal sphere, knowing that her gratitude would come through a lot clearer that way, and it would give her less of a headache. She could already feel one brewing and reached into the pocket of her jacket, pulling out a strip of painkillers, popping two into her hand and putting them both into her mouth, washing them down with a mouthful of coffee.
Yuck.
She looked at Izzy again, apology behind her brown eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- I can't always control it." It was a quiet confession, clear to anyone that she wasn't used to talking about her... gift with other people.
"Ah." Brown eyes became more sympathetic than they had just a few moments before as Izzy relaxed at the clear apology from the other woman. "I shouldn't have assumed, that's my fault." She replied just as quietly. "I'll explain another time."
A glance at the clock on the wall and Izzy frowned. "If you're on your lunch break you're about out of time."
"Another time works." Jenny said, grateful again that the woman hadn't just decided to throw coffee over her or something. She worried her lower lip before she nodded, her own eyes traveling to the clock on the wall. "I am. I'm gonna have to run."
She tipped her head back, finishing what was left of her coffee and wishing it could have lasted her longer.
"I'm really glad I met you today," she added a moment later, coffee cup on the table as she got to her feet. "Hopefully next time we meet it'll be in some kind of situation that doesn't involve me nearly falling on top of you."
"Here," Izzy opened up her purse and got out a business card, then scribbled her mobile number on the back and handed it to the young doctor. "We should get together and talk sometime soon."
Jenny took the card and looked at it for a moment before it was slipped into her pocket. "Definitely. I'll call you." She smiled and turned on her heel, careful not to walk into anyone this time. She glanced back at Izzy as she reached the door and lifted her hand in a parting gesture before she turned and headed back down the road.
She was going to have to run to get back to work on time. Damn.