Who: Max and Quinn What: Quinn brings Max a present. Finds out how high on the not listening scale Max can go. Where: Aubade When: Uh...Recently Warnings: Quinn using more words than usual.
Quinn’s meeting at the shelter went way better than she could have ever hoped. There was a little miscommunication with the way Quinn looked in the reason why she was there, but once it was straightened out (even if she had about thirty pamphlets tucked in to her pockets) everything went well. They couldn’t pay her much, but it really wasn’t about the money. Everything Max had said about finding herself out had struck something inside her. Maybe she should be using the time she was off the streets to figure herself out. Maybe this was really a first step towards something great, but she didn’t know yet.
But she knew enough that she wanted to thank Max for it. Half of it was a thanks for trying to help her and the other unspoken half was a thanks for giving her a chance to prove she could be a good girlfriend for Luke. Luke had talked about the baby before and, obviously, Quinn noticed the lady was pregnant. There was a shop right off the busline that went to Aubade that Quinn went in to and carefully bought some things to put in a gift bag.
She thought of leaving it with the doorman when she arrived at Aubade, but instead made her way up to the Brandons’ apartment after telling the doorman to call up for Max Main.
Max was working on a column for the Creations Times when the doorman called up, something about The Cleaners, and she kept running into dead ends when it came to anything solid about the organization, other than the leak that they were highly political and coming to Seattle. If she could get out there and hit the pavement, she could find something useful out, but she was pretty solidly on bed rest now, which she hadn’t told Thomas, and she wasn’t finding anything out that wasn’t available online or via phone.
The doorman’s call, therefore, was a relief for Max, and she knew it was Quinn from the description alone and had him send her up. The morning maid was in the kitchen, and Max called out for her to open the door and then go ahead and take a lunch break. She didn’t know what Quinn wanted to talk about, but she anticipated the need for privacy. She considered, not for the first time, the agency they used for housekeeping and the rotation of maids they sent along, and what their loyalties were.
Quinn waited patiently at the door for the maid, stepping inside and aside as the maid moved passed her on her way out. She swung the bag a little as walked through the home, finding where Max is as she peeked her head around a doorframe. Giving a little wave, Quinn moved to stand in the door, “Hi.” She started, stopped, before she started moving in to the room again and stood in front of Max. “Wanted to tell you. Went to shelter and going to try there.” Try would be the optimal keyword.
“Wanted, um. Also thank you. For things so...” she trailed off awkwardly, shifting foot to foot before she thrust out the gift bag with a tentative, hopeful smile.
Max patted the couch beside her. “Bring it over here,” she said, as much to get Quinn less nervous about standing there as to get the bag in her possession. She looked tired, because she was lately, more worried than anything else, and she was thankful for the company just then. “What is she having you do?” she asked about the shelter, which she’d done a story on shortly after arriving in Seattle. They provided services to young girls and women at no cost, and Max had always found them to be an amazing organization. It was, she was hoping, a good way for Quinn to realize that book smarts weren’t the only skill a person could possess. Sure, college was a great idea for some people, but she wondered if Quinn wasn’t made for other things, things which were just as important. “Open it for me,” she said, motioning to the bag with an easy smile.
Obediently, Quinn walked over to the couch and settled beside Max. She placed the bag between them and got a quick glance of Max’s computer screen for the moment. Quinn was much less tired and bruised up looking, but there were still some signs of what she had been through. The mark where the dream snake had wrapped around her throat turned in to a greenish-yellow of a fading healing bruise and the cuts were looking smaller by the day. She wasn’t a hundred percent better, but she was getting there. At the talk of the shelter, Quinn smiled a little and told Max, “Teach how defend self.” It was the basic thing she was hired to do, but she added a little shyly, “Wants, um, me try to talk to little girls come in. Bout not being scared and listen to them. Stuff like that.” It still tugged a little smile out of her, something she was genuinely excited to try to be helping with.
Quinn went to open the bag for Max, but asked while she did, “What’s the Cleaners?” She gave Max a look that spoke very matter of factly how she wasn’t going to accept a lie for an answer. Quinn pulled out of the bag for Max and deposited on her lap a set of bright pink sleeper set that was accompanied by a tiny hat and blanket. The second part of the present was a rattle with a plush giraffe on the top. Grinning, Quinn pointed at them, “For the baby.” As if it wouldn’t be obvious. “Heard was girl. So got pink. If not girl, pink...can be manly.” A firm nod accompanied that statement.
Max couldn’t help but smile, and she held up the rattle and shook it gently. “It’s a girl,” she said, taking the tiny clothes and folding them carefully on what was left of her lap as she considered the question about The Cleaners. “Something I’m working on,” she admitted. “But I don’t know anything solid yet. Just that it has something to do with politicians,” she explained. Putting the items back in the bag and giving Quinn and thankful smile. “You didn’t have to get me anything, but thanks.” It was awkward, just like gestures of affection or emotion generally were, but it was heartfelt.
She settled back against the couch, then, and she looked the small girl over. She looked better, and Max sincerely hoped she got enough time to recover before shit started going crazy again. There was something about Quinn that made her worry lately. Looking at Quinn made her wonder if she was going to be able to succeed at keeping her own kid home and safe. She wasn’t having a whole lot of luck doing that with Luke, and the Bat staying home was temporary. “It’s important, what you’re going to be doing,” she told Quinn honestly. “A lot more important than what lots of people do every single day. Something to be proud of.”
“Know that,” Quinn said mildly, waving off the beginning half of the thanks. “Wanted to. S’why gifts gifted.” She propped her chin up on her hands as she looked at Max carefully. There wasn’t any way in the world she could stop the grin on her face. “Like it,” she said, “Shelter lady nice. And some...remind me of me. So helping’s good.” If she had known about places like that when she was little, her entire life would’ve been different. Though, she couldn’t say she regretted her life either but it was something she had thought about.
Pointing at the computer briefly, Quinn asked, “Lot shorter.” An observation of the article, Cipher usually had all the information. It took a second before it clicked, “Ohhh. Cause you here. And not out there.” She jerked her thumb at the window and tilted her head to the side. She had observed Cipher getting her stories before and she did her own recon. A baby, she found, would probably limit that recon.
“Right,” Max said, in regards to her observation. “But I’ll be back out there soon,” she added, because she would. She hadn’t discussed that with Thomas yet, either, but she wasn’t the sort to stay home, and they had discussed daycare, so he knew she intended to return to work at some point. And leave was pretty damn short, anyway.
“She is nice,” Max added, in regards to the woman who ran the shelter, and she smiled at the grin on Quinn’s face. Somehow, in the midst of all the shit that had been going on she thought maybe something good had actually happened. She knew what the girls in the shelter reminded Quinn of; she could still recall Quinn’s memory with perfect clarity. She’d thought about that when deciding whether or not to send the girl there, but in the end she thought it would be good. She’d been making a lot of shit choices lately; she was glad this didn’t seem to be one of them.
Quinn cocked her head to the other side, as she was weighing options out and mulling something over in her head. “Doctors said,” she started carefully, “I’m almost all better. Need to go back checkup.” It was easy to imply what they knew it would mean, but Quinn had a solid offer she thought. It’d probably make more people at ease with her being out on the streets.
“Know will go back out,” she said bluntly, leaning forward as she spoke. “But know that cause back on feet means ready to fight.” Pointing at the laptop, she stated, “You need legs on ground for awhile. Gather info. Can do that.” She held her hands up when Max tried to interject, asking her nonverbally to hold off until she finished her offer. “Have experience - did it in Musings. Informant for Oracle when cop. Good at it. Never got caught.” This was quickly sounding like a job spiel. “Do recon here too before and after comm. Before and after mask, mainly for Oracle. Good at scouting. Small, fast, in and out very quick.” She tickled that off as she counted it on her fingers, “And got safety. Uniform kevlar. Good kevlar. Full head protect. Oracle monitors my GPS and body signals. Also,” she gestures to her eyes, “mask has camera. Stream video. Very protected.”
With a huff, Quinn finished her little speech, “Want to help masks and us. Your articles help. Help articles means help people. Less fighting. You and Oracle monitor.” She jutted her thumb at herself, “Good at direction. Know...not many think that. But reason why me and Oracle work. Respect her and...respect you. So listen to you.” It was like she used all her words she could think of and finally just went quiet after she added, “But okay if no.”
Max sighed, and she closed the laptop slowly and looked at the girl beside her. “Do you know what I think of when I look at you?” she asked, voice completely honest. “I see my daughter coming to me in fewer years than I want to think of and asking me the same thing. And it scared the fuck out of me, Quinn.” That was probably as honest as she’d been about that with anyone. “It isn’t that I think you can’t. It isn’t that I think Luke can’t. It’s that I don’t want either of you doing this shit.” That, too, was true. “And I know I can’t do anything to stop you, but I can try to keep you out of things this big - at least until I’m old and gray and can get away with it.” She smiled a little. “No chance you two can go become doctors and live in the suburbs, huh? White picket fence and family dinners on Sunday and white rocking chairs on the porch?”
“Not really good plan,” Quinn said bluntly, putting her hands gently on Max’s arm. “Get that. I do,” she wanted to stress that to Max before she continued. “But...keeping us out. More than just you. Lot of adult on comms do. It just...makes us work harder. Call us kids and babies and little. Not helping or protecting. Make us feel small and make us work harder.”
Quinn gestured widely with a free hand out at the window, “Fought Penguin by self to make point. Just as good. Could enroll in army, get put on front line at eighteen. Fight at home line and get told am a child. We want to do this. No forcing. Not cause it’s...dunno, shiny? Fame. Do this cause it’s....who we are. Luke made decision, not cause bad thing. Cause he’s good person. The best kind,” she exhaled and looked at Max, “If daughter goes want to do good. Then...give her options. If mask is what she wants, be her Oracle. Maybe she want go be doctor and live in suburbs. Maybe she be Luke’s Robin.”
With a shrug of her shoulders, Quinn looked at Max critically, “But understand. You sacrifice. All you adults for us? For protection? Our end, we get...just as upset as you when you do stupid reckless things. But we don’t get to yell at you.” She huffed and gave Max a disarming smile, “So you help us. Protect isn’t sidelines. And. I saw enough computer that read address, so can do it without you.” That last line was accompanied with a little laugh, disarming the tension even if it wasn’t clear how serious she was.
Max couldn’t help but smile at the speech, at least until Quinn made her closing threat. “You don’t steal my leads, Quinn. No matter how grown up you think you are.” That was a serious statement. “And Luke made his choice for his reasons, yes, as you did, as my child might. But I’m not going to do what Oracle did, not for her, not for Luke, not if I can help it. Luke gets the freedom he does because of his father, not because of me. I would keep him home if I could. And if I can’t help it, if I don’t have that choice, then I’ll keep him, and her, as safe as I can, for as long as I can. I went into the Army at seventeen. I don’t wish that on anyone, especially not anyone I care about. And just because the government thinks that’s a good age to send a kid out there to fight, it doesn’t mean it is.” Touchy subject, the Army.
“Mad cause get more information. Cause I’m sneaky,” Quinn stated with a wrinkle of her nose. It was more of a joke than a threat that time. She looked at Max, wondering if she really understood teenagers at all. She seriously was going to be in such a surprise when her baby got that old. “Still not your decision,” she told her plainly, “When eighteen, legal adult. Girl goes, going to fight as mask. Or tells you she become a cop. What do you do? Disown then? Sit and disapprove? Shame until crow her to do safe thing? Take choice away is terrible. Just as bad as opposite.”
Max had enough worries about her future skills as a parent that the turn of the conversation made her uncomfortable, especially the implication that she would shame her child into anything. “ I’m telling you that you don’t come into my house and look at my screen and then threaten me about stealing a lead that I don’t want you pursuing.” She stood, awkwardly, and she looked down at the harmless looking teenager, and then she nodded toward the door. “Thank you for the present. And whatever she decides to do when she’s eighteen, we’ll deal with it then. Until then, she gets to be a kid.” She paused, adding tightly, “and you don’t know me well enough to know what kind of mother I’ll be.”
Quinn stood, straightening herself up to her full height and went toe to toe with Max. There was no look of fear or even a passing look of being impressed by Max’s attempt at anger. “I’m not stealing,” she hated that implication and was not afraid to let her know it. “Calling me thief make you feel better. Fine. Thinking cause young, incapable. Fine. But never imply Oracle did wrong again. Know what makes good mom? Accept kid. Accept when fuck up. Accept when do good. Accept decisions. Talk to them on same level. Don’t think above cause you alive longer.”
She stepped back and shoved her hands in her pockets, “Not talking about baby either. Talk about Luke. Accept him for who is. Luke’s wonderful way he is. Going out at night and all. Should be proud. I am. Just knowing him. You get to be his mom. It’s wonderful. Scary, okay yeah. But wonderful. He’s the best mask out there. Be proud of that. No one else can say that.” She gave Max a look over her shoulder as she started to head to the door, “You already good mom with best son. Remember that.”
Max wasn’t listening any longer. The accusations didn’t sit well, especially when she was already stressed, and this closing speech wasn’t helping matters. The implication that she wasn’t proud of Luke, that she would not accept her child, on top of everything else, just made her cross her arms over her stomach protectively and wait in silence for Quinn to leave.
Quinn turned away and rolled her eyes. Of course, Max wouldn’t listen to her. Dish out advice to everyone, but once it came back around she shut down. She decided, definitely, she was never being a mom. Moms were crazy. “Fine, yes going,” she called over her shoulder. Quinn would continue to do what she wanted. More adults, she found, didn’t seem to actually understand or blocked out how it was to be a teenager. You’d think they’d learn, but apparently it was too much to ask of them.
With a roll of her shoulders as she exited Aubade, Quinn looked ahead. Max couldn’t really stop her and if she didn’t want to listen to her than the same would be given in return. She tapped out the address on her phone and saved it in a draft to come back to later. While she tried, Quinn wasn’t going to change to make anyone like her. If Max was going to keep thinking she was a terrible influence, a thief, and an awful person. She wasn’t going to do a damn thing to prove her wrong. With a little smirk, she tucked the phone in her back pocket and headed on home, back to her own mom that was just as proud of her sneaky little self as Quinn was proud to be her daughter.