WHO: Gwen and Kyle WHAT: Worried check ins, discussions on sisters, and hey, wtf is that on your neck? WHERE: Her apartment WHEN: Post-Bat rescue and pre-Quinnapping WARNINGS: None!
Gwen barely managed to stifle a yawn and glared wearily at the light coming through her bedroom window. Waking up tired from her nap was expected, she operated on very little sleep to begin with, but the events of the past few days had taken quite the toll on her. Or maybe it was this cold that she seemed to have developed, no coughing or sneezing but still a small chill and a vague headache that refused to leave her.
She managed to scoot herself to the edge of the bed before yawning again, cutting it short as she heard the front door open and close. Footsteps approached instead of left and she wondered who had come home. Her door was only halfway closed but there was still an inquisitive knock before it was pushed open more. Once Kyle’s head peeked around she found herself giving him a sleepy smile. “Hey.”
There weren’t really many words to describe how worried Kyle had been when Wren phoned him. There weren’t really many words to describe how he felt even now that she was home safe. So he’d made a point of “stopping by” whenever he could manage it, or whenever she’d let him in the door. Which wasn’t as often as he liked.
Today was a good day for lunch, or at least a “check in” using lunch as a pretense. The good thing about being in charge was that no one seemed to think you were slacking if you took a lunch break. He was constantly taking lunches with people, and rarely got a chance to sit at his desk and...Well he was definitely still finding his feet. And he definitely wasn’t liking the whole wearing a tie every day thing. It was afternoon so the tie that had been tied straight in the morning was now loose around his neck and his jacket was somewhere hanging on the back of a chair at the office, and his shirt was well past remaining tucked in-definitely still finding his feet.
He was carrying with him a brown paper bag with a couple of lunch orders from the Italian hole in the wall/restaurant with amazing pasta up the street from the Precinct office he let himself into Gwen’s apartment.
He didn’t see her around so he poked his head into her bedroom and grinned at her when he realized she was just getting up. Good. Sleeping meant she’d keep out of trouble. “Hey yourself, I brought lasagna,” he said walking into the room to sit next to her on the bed.
Her stomach grumbled before she could protest and she laughed softly to herself. When he sat next to her she reached over and tugged his loose tie, pulling him in for a quick kiss hello. Oh yes, she liked the tie, and when she pulled away she smoothed it down gently with a lingering pat and fond smile.
Then she leaned on his arm, smelling the lasagna and giving a dreamy sigh. “You’re going to spoil me if you keep this up. I should go away more often.” She bit her lip after she finished, and she was glad her head was tucked down and staring at the bag. She knew he wasn’t there just because she had been away for a little while.
He kissed her back and smiled at her as he put his hands on the sides of her face and looked her over for a moment. He tucked her hair behind her ears and sighed. “I’ll spoil you more if you keep out of trouble as best you can,” he said knowing it wouldn’t work, but it was worth a shot.
The sigh was immediate and she dropped her gaze. “I tried. It wasn’t...” She broke of into another sigh and turned her head away, running her hands over his and over her hair, pulling over her shoulder in a nervous gesture. “I wasn’t anywhere near where the firefight was supposed to be. I had no idea they’d bring it to me.”
“I know,” he said firmly, he knew that she wasn’t an idiot, he knew that there were risks involved in both of their jobs, it didn’t make him feel much better when those little chinks in the armor were exposed and they were both faced with the very harsh reality of the lives they led. In short. They were so fucked. “I’m not mad,” he said trying to sound reassuring. “I’m...Concerned,” he added with a bit of a smirk.
Gwen hated sentences that started with I’m not mad. She hated saying them; she hated hearing them. And hearing him follow it up with concern, no matter how much it warmed her to hear it, made her toy with her hair even more nervously. She hadn’t even realized what she was doing, or how bad the big injection bruise that she was flashing him would look as she looked away.
“I know but... we knew this. I knew this. You knew this. This what I do. I haven’t gone out on the field since Wednesday. I’ve stayed put.” She didn’t bother to elaborate on the fact that her skills were useless on the recent Bat rescue, or that she had stayed at home because she hadn’t been feeling too well. “There are always risks, Kyle.”
Kyle wasn’t a fan of saying things like that either, but he didn’t want her to think he wasn’t worried. “You think I don’t know that?” he asked incredulously. “I am not exactly known for having the safest job in the world, Gwen,” he reminded her gently. “I’m not saying I don’t want you to do your work, I’m just saying we need a little bit more communication. I know you have to have your secrets, and I’m trying to respect that, but we need to work something out, code words or something ridiculous,” he grinned a bit, “And if I come home to find your Bat friend in my living room one more time, we’re all going to have to have a meeting about boundaries,” he was mostly teasing trying to keep the mood as light as possible. She wasn’t feeling well, he could tell, and he didn’t want to upset her further.
He furrowed his brow when he saw the bruise on her neck, he didn’t like to see her hurt, he didn’t like to think that she’d been in a situation where she could get hurt. But he also knew that was fighting a losing battle. He liked to think she wasn’t fond of him getting shot at anymore than he was fond of her holing up in hotel rooms and getting hurt. “You get a doctor to look at that? What the hell is it?” he asked curiously.
Having to defend her less than legal gig was new to Gwen. Back in Musings no one knew what she did. Her Oracle work was the side job and her day job covered her excuses. Now that it was full time, and now that she had someone who knew what she did and was still separate from it, she found it a little harder to discuss. She opened her mouth to respond but his little tease in there caught her by surprise. “Bat?” Surely he was joking and she cast a sidelong look his way. If it was a joke, she was waiting for a laugh. And if it was a story, she was waiting for the elaboration.
But with the attention back to her, and with his questions, she found her fingertips ghosting over the bruise self consciously before smoothing down her hair to cover it. “What doctor?” she asked in an attempt at lighthearted but sounding more resigned. The more time that passed, the more questions found, more Creations and cover ups they encountered, the more she found she couldn’t trust anyone outside of her small vigilante circle. “I don’t know what it is,” she admitted lamely, knowing that was only going to upset him more but unable to lie her way out of it. “I’m having someone run some tests but I don’t... I have no clue how it happened.” She hadn’t admitted to anyone about that, bits and pieces here and there but not this in its entirety. “I was monitoring our mission and then they broke in. Knocked us out,” her fingers trailed to the dart mark at the other side of her throat, “and then I woke up on the other side of room. Out of my chair. With that on my neck.”
He nodded, “He decided to pay me a little visit after that awful press conference, making sure I wasn’t mind controlling everyone,” he said with a playful smile. “But once again I win the ‘worst ability’ ever award.”
His eyebrows knit together when she asked what doctor, and he immediately ran down the list of doctors he knew, contacts he had. “Well I know a doctor, but she mostly works on dead people...But she still went to medical school. So if you need anything else checked out, she’s good.”
He listened to her story, and while it didn’t make much sense to him, and there wasn’t much he could do about it now, the concern was still evident on his face and in his voice, “Any idea what might be going on there?” he asked finally.
The idea of Bat breaking into Kyle’s apartment wasn’t far fetched at all but that didn’t stop her from laughing loudly, breaking off only into a small coughing fit that she lifted her hand to cover. Still, the grin remained. “He likes to make sure everything’s on the up and up. Though he probably doesn’t know I gave you my seal of approval.” She wasn’t sure if their mutual friend had told anyone that they were dating but of all the secrets to tell the Bat, that wasn’t too big of one.
Gwen shook her head at his suggestion of a doctor. “I have one, or had one.” Checkups and doctor’s visists weren’t exactly foreign to her. “But with the way things are going now, I’m not sure we can trust anyone who’s not... well, not like us.” It felt horrible to say but knowing that the government was doing genetic testing on Creations didn’t bode well at all.
She never did like being the source of the concern on his face and she leaned over to give him another quick peck. “I’ve got someone looking into it for me. I’ll find out soon enough.” Slightly wishful thinking on her part but she hoped she sounded reassuring. Since there was nothing they could do but wait, she opted for a subject change as she reached for their lunch. “How’s work?”
He gave her a pointed look until she’d stopped her laughing fit, “Are you done now?” he teased gently. “Well he seems to think I’m not all that terrible, so God willing he won’t be breaking into my place again any time soon. I really need to look into getting a better dog, Charlie is failing me,” he said not serious at all. Charlie wasn’t guard dog material, everyone knew that.
“Well that’s understandable, but she’s a good doctor just the same, she and I have an understanding, I send her the weird shit, she doesn’t tell anyone about it, she’s one of those curious types,” he shrugged, not really sure what else there was to say on the subject. He doubted Gwen would take his advice, or suggestions but there wasn’t anything he could do about that either.
The subject change wasn’t lost on him, and he was going to try to press for more information but he knew it was pointless. She wasn’t going to tell him anything he actually wanted to know, and he supposed he’d have to learn to deal with it. He didn’t exactly know how to handle having a girlfriend with an entirely different life that he wasn’t allowed to be a part of, but he was trying. Which had to count for something. She knew he worried, he supposed that was as good as it was going to get. “Work is fine. It’s work, lots of red tape in this new gig, but it is what it is,” he answered again. “You want to eat? I need to be heading back here pretty soon I’d hate to stop by for lunch and waste all your time talking instead of eating.”
“No, no, no,” she insisted before leaning on his arm and turning her head up to smile at him. “I love Charlie. And you can’t get rid of her. I need a dog on my side during arguments of all things canine.” She paused as she recalled she hadn’t told him the news yet and added, “Quinn’s friends are getting her a puppy for her birthday. You should come by next week. We had to reschedule her party what with...” She hadn’t exactly told him about the Bat and what happened, especially since it came on the heels of her fiasco, so she gave him her typical shrug. “Things got a little hectic last week but we’re trying again next week. I’m making a million cakes and you need to be there if you want a slice. Otherwise Quinn will eat them all.”
She nodded at the prospect of lunch although she wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as she was initially. She knew he wasn’t happy about her dodging her questions and she knew she could be more forthcoming. For once it wasn’t her usual reasons for keeping secrets. “I promise, once I know something about this I’ll let you know,” she said starting to go through their bag of food and lay out their lunch for them. “I just.... I have no idea what happened with that.” She gestured to her neck before handing him a fork/napkin packet. “It was a bad mission. I mean, we did what we set out to do but... but they knew were coming. Someone knew where I was and I have this and I don’t know why or what it is and I just...” She trailed off as she stared down at the takeout box of lasagna and she shook her head to clear her thoughts. She kept her eyes down as she handed him his box, embarrassed that she had to admit how rattled she was. “But I’ll tell you when I have something. Just everything’s been a mess this past week. Mission after mission after mission. Missed birthdays. Surprise sisters. Date auctions. It would be nice if the universe could do me a solid and try spreading this out for once.”
“Alright, Charlie can stay but only because she keeps my feet warm,” he said smiling. He listened as she talked about Quinn’s birthday and nodded, it sounded like an interesting time at the very least. He had no idea what to get her, but he supposed something edible would do the trick. “Sounds fun,” he answered.
He was intent on the food she was spreading out though he did process what she said and he took her at her word. He didn’t know what he could do with the information once she figured it out. But he supposed knowing was half the bottle. “It’s been a bad week, I’m sorry you had missed birthdays, and surprise sisters, and all this crap on top of it, next week will get better,” he offered a bit lamely, but he didn’t want to just sit there and say nothing.
“You’ll come?” Kyle had been over for all the holidays to know that he was always a welcome presence in the apartment. Still, this was something he didn’t have to attend but it was clear that Gwen would love his presence there. “Wren’s coming too,” she added helpfully.
She made an unhappy little sound, not quite believing anyone was going to cut her a break anytime soon, and scooted back a bit on her bed. She opened her container up and rested it on her bedspread before starting to attack it with her fork and knife. “Did I tell you about that girl? The one who thinks she’s my sister?” She couldn’t remember, but then again she knew their little reunion had been completely public on the forums. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he read it, shook his head, and closed the window.
“Of course,” he answered easily. There was no real reason that he wouldn’t, he was glad to have gotten an invitation. “Good I owe her lunch anyway, now she can pester me about it.”
He had to hide a chuckle with a cough when she scoffed (or huffed, or puffed or pouted whatever it was) and started attacking her food. “I...Heard about it.” He said cautiously. “Not the ideal family reunion, I assume?”
She tossed him a look, more amused than incredulous though that was there too. “Are you trying to use the birthday in lieu of taking Wren out to a real lunch?” She didn’t believe it, not really, but clucked her tongue all the same.
The look grew a touch darker when he tried to cover up his laugh and this time she properly huffed, letting out an abrupt “Hey!” when he moved for her food. She stabbed his knife with her fork but let him take away a portion of her lasagna. “Not... really...” she admitted sheepishly. “I got... snappy. But! In my defense, she wasn’t very nice, and not just to me. There were some other people that she was equally obnoxious to.” Yes, that completely justified Gwen’s childish behavior.
He held his hand up in defense, “Not at all! I owe her lunch, I’m gonna take her to lunch.”
He listened as she defended herself, really he couldn’t blame her. He knew that she got snappy, and he honestly didn’t see anything wrong with the way she handled the situation. “I have to admit it was nice not to be the one you were snapping at for a change,” he said smiling wryly.
There was the glare again though as much as she tired, she couldn’t keep the smirk from tugging on her lips. She set down her knife again and reached with her free hand to tug on his tie once more. She gave him a quick kiss, and one more just because. “I’m sorry I snap so damn much.”
He kissed her back and chuckled at her apology. He shrugged his shoulders and went back about eating, “It’s fine, I can take it,” he assured her. Sure it was headache inducing most of the time, but there wasn’t much else to do with the situation. She was who she was. As far as he knew she wasn’t trying to change him, he wasn’t going to ask that of her.
No, she liked Kyle just the way he was. Well, there were some things but she was so very far from perfect. They were working on all those other things. Right now he let her vent, worried over her well being, and brought her lunch. Right now he was pretty perfect. “I’ll still try to lay off. Save the bitchiness for the sister. And for another time. I’ve already wasted too much of our lunch break.” Back to the important stuff. Like their food.
He shook his head, “Don’t you dare, I might think the world is ending if you aren’t narrowing your eyes and looking at me like you want to stab me in the face,” he teased, and from the smirk on his face it was obvious he was teasing. Kyle had a brother, and it had been one of two committed relationships he’d ever had in his life. The other had been his fiance, but even that was on a completely different plane than he’d had with Mike. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to try and build a sibling relationship from scratch. Sure he and Mike had had to do plenty of rebuilding but that was different. “Make sure I’m invited to the family reunion, if she gives you any more lip I’ll find a trumped up charge to arrest her on.”
“Tempting,” she laughed as she went back to eating. A standing offer to arrest relatives who annoyed her? What more could anyone ask for. “Can’t be hard. She was talking a big game with that Wallace guy on the forum. I’m sure you can get her on something.”
He raised his eyebrows, he remembered reading something that involved Drake. It didn’t surprise him that Drake would be on the business end of a woman’s temper, but he’d double check with him that all was well at the very least. “He and I go way back, if he knows her I both want to know, and don’t want to know exactly how. It could go either way,” he said shaking his head a bit.
Gwen made a face. Her thoughts were already leading her down a path she didn’t want to think about her sister in. It was better to go for another subject. “How do you know him?” She didn’t ask about his past too often, the memory of his fiancee always the first to come up. But here was a tie that was obviously still well, or at least still alive. It seemed like an okay topic to pursue.
He shrugged off her question, he was always ever so talkative, “He was a friend of my brother’s back in Musings,” really there wasn’t much else to say without going into painful detail about things. Things he’d rather forget, and things he really didn’t want to share on a lunch break. “We ran around together a little, he’s a good guy.”
She nodded as she ate, curious but not pressing the issue. If he wanted to tell her sometime, he would. And she’d be there to listen. “He seemed so. I didn’t really talk to him much but he sounded just as in the dark about her as I was.” She shrugged and ate another portion of her lasagna. “I just... I don’t like how she acts as if we have unfinished business. Like I owe her something just because we have the same mother.” She poked at her food again before looking over at him, wondering if he had some sort of sibling insight that she could use.
He sighed, he didn’t know what to tell her, “Look, you don’t owe her anything, if she wants to reach out and make a real effort instead of making an ass out of herself, that’s her choice. But you don’t have to put forth anything you don’t want to. She showed up here all crazy, that’s a point against her, she acts like you owe her something, that’s another point. If she can play nicely, I’d say give her the time of day, but I don’t want to give her too much credit that ends up with you in a bad place because she’s a bitch.” He didn’t pull punches normally, he didn’t know why he ought to start now.
And Gwen wouldn’t want him to. If there was anything she didn’t need or want, it was someone sugar coating anything for her sake. “You’re right,” she said softly. She had nodded as he spoke, mulling over his advice, and was glad that someone was seeing it her way. For a while there, she thought she had been overreacting. As she finished up her last bite she looked over at gave him a grin. “No more talk about things that are going to worry or piss either of us off?” It might be a long shot but they didn’t have much more time on his break. She would’ve liked it to end on a good note.
He reached into the bag that held the food and pulled out two containers with cheesecake in them and grinned, “There is nothing worrisome about cheesecake,” he said clearly pleased with himself.
She gave him her brightest grin. “You’re the best.”