Who: Gwen & Jane What: Chance encounter. (no inhibitions) Where: Bathos Elevator. When: Sunday Warnings: none
Gwen pressed the button for the elevator without even looking up. Her eyes were trained on the newspaper in her hands. Only a few days old, she opened it up to an article about the vigilantes in Seattle, a common paper topic recently. When the elevator doors opened up she folded it back up again, the big and bold headline still staring up at her even as she dropped it in her lap. She spared the inside of car a glance, to make sure there was no one in her way, but not toward the buttons to make sure the elevator was going in the right direction. Once she was saw it was mostly empty, except for a tall blonde standing to the side, she wheeled into the elevator car backwards. The doors closed faster than she anticipated and right as she pressed the button for the floor she wanted, “L”, the car was already rising.
“Damn. This isn’t going down.” Normally Gwen wasn’t one to talk aloud to herself, especially with a stranger in earshot, but she suddenly found she didn’t mind so much.
“Sorry,” the tall blonde said apologetically. “I can get that for you if you would like.” She was dressed in beige slacks, and a white blouse. She was making her rounds for the day. Usually she was off, but there had been a bit of a rush in the building. Apparently, everyone had decided to do stupid things all day, and she’d been letting them hear about just how stupid those decisions were. When a person needed help removing something that was wrongfully inserted? That was just not the kind of weekend Jane needed to have. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she was starting to think someone had put something in the water.
“Where did you need to go?” She shifted her doctor bag to her other hand.
“Down.” It was like the mechanism that made Gwen consider her words before she said them was completely gone. The answer was the first that came into her head and since it wasn’t wrong, she left it. Still, she pressed the “L” button once more, a silent reaffirmation rather than any impatience on her part, before looking over at the woman.
She didn’t recognize her, but that wasn’t anything new. Gwen didn’t mingle often with the other residents but now felt like a good enough time to change that. “How about you? Where are you going?”
"Was on my way to do a check-up on a patient from yesterday. I don't know what's happening this weekend, but everyone's decided that all the bad ideas are such good ones." She'd go over and review her choices when all this was over and probably see that she shouldn't have done half of them, but it wouldn't bother her half as much as it would bother a lot of her patients. "You'd think they would have figured out how to safeguard against mass insanity by now. I mean, we have a Creation with that ability, right?" She wasn't usually this talkative, but she just felt like getting that out.
“If only,” Gwen chuckled softly. “I mean if we did, it would’ve been nice to know about it. Especially after what I heard happened at that Halloween party.” Oh the stories she had heard. Thinking about abilities made her spare her elevator companion another look. “I’m guessing that’s not your ability then?” Now she wondered what it was, especially now that she knew the woman was a doctor of some kind.
"If I did, I think our lovely psycho friends wouldn't be making as much trouble as they are, or their masked counterparts would probably be more smart about how they do things." It wasn't on such a large scale, but the group was pretty big. She didn't think they really understood what was happening. "Running into a hospital dressed as a giant bat wouldn't be on the top of my list of things to do if I were on the run from the police if you ask me, not the police are being much of a help either." It wasn't a slight toward them, just an observation. "Then again, it's kind of hard when they're left out of the loop. It'd be better if everyone just worked together."
“Yeah,” Gwen sighed, rubbing the back of neck with her hand. “I don’t know what he was thinking there.” It was said with some familiarity, although whether it was for the man or the story was anyone’s guess. “Well the police are trying their best I think. Everyone is just working with what they’ve got. Cops have procedures and that sometimes prevents them from doing what they want to do. Then you’ve got the masks.” She took a moment to tap her finger on the paper in her lap, nail against the headline about vigilantes and safety and Seattle. “They want to pick up that slack but that’s breaking the law and who’s to say how much is too much. So it’s a delicate balance.” A beat passed before she added. “I think about this a lot.”
"I get they're trying to help, but it doesn't instill a lot of confidence in their ability when they're floundering all over the place. If they were a little more organized, they'd probably be a lot more accepted. You can't control people, but they need some sort of protocol," she was probably preaching to the choir. The woman sounded like someone who had her head on straight. "You know, instead of being stubborn, self-righteous assholes, who shut themselves off when you try to have an actual conversation with them." That was not all supposed to spill out like that, and she back tracked a moment. "Not that I've actually met one or anything." That was so convincing.
Gwen opened her mouth to retort, or maybe agree, she wasn’t even sure what she was going to do but she was going to say something. That was before the woman continued on. Stubborn. Self-righteous. Shutting themselves off. That definitely sounded like someone she knew. Her brow furrowed slightly and curiously, maybe even a tad suspiciously, at the other woman. “Are you sure?”
There was something about her tone that prompted Jane to continue. "Well, he's a good guy. They're all good guys. I'm sure what they do works for them, but they should really think about how it works for the rest of us, especially with all the little ones poking their heads out of the woodwork taking their lead."
Gwen nodded without even trying to hide her agreement. Why should she? Everything she had said Gwen agreed with. Very quickly she decided that it was less important that this woman knew one of them, or that they should be absolutely clear on which one she knew. No, now Gwen had to focus on something much more important. “And you said you are a doctor? What’s your specialty?”
“Currently, I’m a general practitioner.” It was a nicer way of saying a family doctor. “But you know Creations can have some interesting cases.” She once had to talk someone out of a wall, and that had been one of her first cases. “I prefer to work with trauma, but the hours don’t suit me.” Being on-call wasn’t conducive to her house calls. Sitting around in an office for an appointed amount of time made her more available to her patients. “I guess that’s why I love my side job.” After a moment, she looked down at the woman in the wheelchair. She realized she had been talking about herself the entire time. “What do you do?”
More attentive nodding. It was clear that Gwen was genuinely interested in what the woman had to say. Perhaps more than so than another person should be. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t realize what the woman was asking her at first. “Programmer.” A quick blink and then she realized that perhaps she should throw suspicion off of her. “Small time.” It was easy to tell which was the lie and which was has closer to the truth. Still, she felt that a subject change would be the best way to diversionary tactic and she pressed on. “You mentioned a side job? Sounds like you’re very busy.” Maybe too busy. That would be a shame.
"Creation cases. House calls," she specified. She didn't realize she hadn't mentioned that. "If you ever need any assistance with anything," she said producing a card out of her blouse pocket. "I'm Jane, by the way. Jane Cooper," she introduced herself with a smile as she held the card out for the woman. "Nothing's too strange or embarrassing. I think I've seen just about everything there is to see in the last three years."
Gwen was smiling in return as she took studied the card for a moment before sliding it into her purse. She had a name now and there was nothing at that moment from giving her own. “Gwen. Gwen Dailey. And thank you. It’s always good to have a doctor on hand.” Her thoughts were far away for a moment before she realized what she was saying. This time she thought the cover up was an easy one and she gestured down to the wheels of her chair before give a slight shrug. “You never know.”
Their short trip had come to a stop. “Nice to meet you, Gwen,” she said smiling at the woman’s appreciation for her occupation. “I’d love to continue this conversation, but I believe this is my floor.” She patted the red head on the shoulder and exited.