InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "To the Batmobile!"

Robert Callen (r_callen) wrote in omega_reality,
@ 2012-03-17 00:18:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2012 03, character: g callen, character: robert callen

RP: Rob and G
Who: Rob and G
Where: shopping
When: March 17, 2012
Summary: The two brothers have some things to discuss... in a supermarket

Robert couldn't believe that on St. Patrick's, he was in a supermarket, sober, and not running out after stocking up on beer. He almost pinched himself, but no, it was real. He had left Liam with Savannah, Mike at home and had gone shopping.

God, he was pathetic.

When he saw G approached, Robert looked at him with the corner of his eyes. "I'm pushing a cart. Do you know how seriously wrong that is? I had a maid for this. I had airmen to do this for me. I only went for alcohol, which would be abundant on St. Pat's." He shook his head. "What's worse is that I already figured out that I can hook up Liam's car seat to the cart and I can bring him with me so that Savannah can rest. If you came to tell me that I'm pathetic, you can go back to either shopping or watching for threats, or both."

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g_callen
2012-03-17 07:44 pm UTC (link)

Chuckling, G shook his head. "Sorry. Telling you that you're pathetic wasn't on my list of things to do today. But, I can add it if you really want me to." Giving his brother a sideways glance, he smirked. "Fatherhood looks good on, Rob. Not pathetic."

G left most of his shopping for the end of the trip, partly so he could watch for threats, indeed. But, also because he didn't take long. He knew what they needed, got it, and got out with a minimal amount of wandering others did. So, he could use the rest of the time in the store for these little side conversations.

"I do have a couple questions for you. One, how would you like an excuse to get into the plane more often? Wait. I know the answer to that one. So, two, what do you think of our local basketball star's ability to learn how to fly it?"

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r_callen
2012-03-17 07:56 pm UTC (link)

"Might as well add it at the list since you're here. It's not like I'd punch you for telling me the truth." He looked back. "You're trying to make me feel better for knowing about diapers and car seats. That's even more proof that I'm pathetic, but I'm too tired to care. He eats non stop, which means he's up non stop. Fatherhood gives you bags under your eyes."

His cart reflected his status as a dad too. Diapers, formula to go with shaving cream and in the end if he remembered even actual food. It was also clear that there was no mom in sight from the cart.

"I don't know him well, but he seems smart enough to figure it out. In terms of courage, he doesn't even have an ounce of common sense or fear." Robert grinned. "He'll do great. Does that mean I'm getting a co-pilot that isn't a SEAL? Oh wait, I know why, because you turn green when I really fly," he finished, laughing.

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g_callen
2012-03-17 09:21 pm UTC (link)

"Me? Try to make someone feel better about anything?" G asked with an innocent look. He shook his head. They might say all babies did was eat and sleep. But, that took on a whole new meaning when the poor kid inherited the damned metabolism this world had given them. "Let me take him for a few hours next weekend. Give yourself a little time to rest and recharge. Time you're not just exchanging for training while my girl's watching him."

"Apparently he is as 'fearless as two brothers' the good Reverend knows. I'm still not sure if we should be insulted or not." G snorted and smacked his brother lightly on the arm. "Man's stomach was not meant to do barrel rolls. But, yes, it means we're giving you a new co-pilot. And you start on Monday. Lease on the plane was extended another three months."

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r_callen
2012-03-17 09:32 pm UTC (link)

"Yes, you. You only enjoy it when you're the one making people miserable," he said, chuckling, before considering G's offer. "I might just take you up on that. I'm not the only one that needs some rest. He wakes up just as much as I do. I've got this down to an art form, but there's still screaming while I prepare the formula. I don't know how loud that is when your hearing is in overdrive. Hopefully, it'll go back to normal, or what counts for normal for him, when his sight comes back." He smiled. "Nothing certain yet, but he's been seeing halos of light. We're taking that as a good sign. I'd wait for what Bambi says but the woman is clueless."

Robert laughed. "No, I think he's more fearless. We have experience and age that has taught us when a risk is worth taking. He has none of that, which is perfect for a new pilot. I don't think there was a maneuver that i considered too dangerous when I started flying. It might be how I ended up testing planes at Area 51." He grinned. "Man's stomach is a little on the weak side, at least yours. Once again, this might be how I ended up testing planes in the middle of nowhere. Monday sounds fine. I'll let you know if he can actually do it or not."

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g_callen
2012-03-18 01:04 am UTC (link)

"If I'm making people miserable, they probably deserve it," G retorted with a smirk. The news about Renko was encouraging. With luck, maybe this would indeed prove a temporary setback and not a permanent impairment. "Good to hear it. It's a step in the right direction, at least. The offer's a standing one. So, think about it. The two of you could probably use the break. And it'll give my partner something to tease me about, I'm sure."

Rob's assessment was probably accurate on the fearless scale. "Or you could be insane," he teased. "Insanity leads to such things as flipping a couple billion dollars worth of metal end over end through the air, I'm told. But, let me know how he does and we'll see if we want to encourage further insanity," G added with a grin.

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r_callen
2012-03-18 01:17 am UTC (link)

"You might have made your partner's daughter miserable with that suggestion. She didn't email me. I figured I'd talk to her tomorrow, see how she feels about it, and then we decide what to do later on." He picked up some of cans before starting to push the cart again. "We could even rotate with my partner and I swear I'll have your balls if you say anything." He wouldn't have said anything, but he believed in quid pro quo and G had come out to him when they barely knew each other.

"We've decided that... Jesus, I still can't believe I'm saying that. He wants... no, that's not even true, I suggested it, which is insane in and of itself, but I guess your little angel saw it coming. I can't believe how casually she included him in the baby sitting rotation." Okay, so he still wasn't saying anything, but words made it real somehow. "I guess what I'm trying not to say is that he's family, too. And if this is a good thing, why can't I say it without feeling like I need to teleport to China and never come back?" A marriage of convenience was a breeze; this made him twitch.

"Anyone that enjoys relationship has to be crazier than anyone flipping a couple billion dollars worth of metal," he added. "I wasn't crazy, but talented. God, those babies were beauties, things that pilots wouldn't see for years, decades, getting paid to do all the things you aren't supposed to do, flying them so low that if you strapped someone under the plane, he'd be touching the ground with his back. It was amazing."

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g_callen
2012-03-18 02:19 am UTC (link)

"Not my intention." G didn't honestly know how Jenna felt about a good many things. He would have to fix that. He was used to people coming to him when they needed things and had assumed she would do the same, as she had when she needed a way to make a connection with her father. But, perhaps he had misread that situation.

All worries about Jenna went out of his mind, however, when Rob went on and G bit his tongue to keep from saying anything...mostly because he liked his balls where they were. But, he couldn't help smirking a little. At least until Rob mentioned his angel and then G had to pause and think because the only person he'd ever referred to by that name had been Hetty, his tiny but tough guardian angel. Of course, it would have been just like Hetty to have said something to Rob while they were still on base. There wasn't anything that woman hadn't known. Well, she hadn't known he had a sister or a brother or who his parents were. But, she knew everything else.

"Because it's scary as all hell to realize there's someone worth staying for instead of fleeing to China," he replied once he'd figured out Rob meant Savannah and not Hetty. "And I'd be more shocked she included him if she hadn't told me to marry my partner in our third conversation."

He listened to the rest of what his brother was saying with a smile. "You sound like your work partner when talking about his music when you talk about flying."

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r_callen
2012-03-18 02:33 am UTC (link)

"I know, but I'll talk to her, maybe without you guys there she won't feel on the spot and I can see how she really feels. It's easier in person than through an email," he pointed out.

Robert nodded. "Because it's scary as hell to realize that I could ever feel like this about anyone. Marriage was always going to be a business, always. It was a given, and now... some days I wonder if it's not like I've always said, it's happening because it's human nature, people trapped in this situation, it's like Big Brother, locked in a house and the hookups are inevitable, because it's either that or feeling lonely forever." He chuckled. "I think she'd be outraged at my interpretation; she has a more romantic approach to life."

He laughed when G compared him to Sean. "I've been flying planes since he was in nursery school. If anything he sounds like me, and I still have a bet going there. Only a matter of time, and that's not romanticism talking, but inevitability."

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g_callen
2012-03-18 03:05 am UTC (link)

"Depends on the person." G chuckled, but nodded. It had been a suggestion, only. It was really up to Rob and Jenna if they wanted to go through with it.

"I think it's even scarier than hell to realize someone feels the same way." Scary, humbling, exciting, comforting, and pure insanity, it was all of those things on any given day. And, yet, he didn't want to be without it. "I'll take your word on the hook-ups. Watching it would have required I own a television or that there wasn't a game on if I was at my partner's. But, I get what you're saying. I don't know. People can live with being lonely for a long time if they think it's the only option, or the best option." G laughed. "She would indeed. You should have heard her when I explained some of the things I've done or let be done in order to get the job done."

G just shook his head. "If by inevitability you mean 'a done deal' judging by that dinner. But, then, what do I know?"

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r_callen
2012-03-18 03:13 am UTC (link)

"No, it's still scarier that I'm voluntarily putting myself through everything that comes with a relationship. I never had any doubt that people could fall for me," he said, with his typical lack of modesty and a grin. "How could they not? Gorgeous, rich, without a family to annoy them, funny, well dressed. Why wouldn't they want me?"

Robert snorted. "No, as in a 'done deal' judging by what my partner can hear. I guess we're waiting after March Madness to officially know. Now, if Bambi and Spencer would just fuck so he doesn't groan when he hears another corny thing, I'll be happier. I can't wait for his sight to come back. He had gotten good at shutting things out unless he really wanted to hear and now it all went to hell. Speaking of things that people can do that I probably should have mentioned before, I can go about three hundred miles in one go with a person with me, but it takes a while to recuperate. Give me time and I'll be able to cover most of the country from the middle. Still not Monte Carlo, but working on it."

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g_callen
2012-03-18 03:30 am UTC (link)

"Right. I keep forgetting who the perfect brother is." And luckily G was the elder and wiser or he'd have been rolling his eyes like a teenager right about then. But, he supposed it made enough sense. Rob had all the confidence G never had.

"So, what you're saying is his sight needs to come back so the rest of us will stop being his own private porn radio show?" G asked with a quiet laugh. Not that the idea of Renko being able to hear everything he said, or was unable to help overhearing private moments shared with Sam. That part made G distinctly uncomfortable, if he was honest with himself. But, there was a little humorous.

The implications of the rest of what his brother was saying, however, were less amusing. "I see," he commented mildly, wondering exactly how pissed he should be, though he supposed he shouldn't be surprised. "I assume I'm hearing about this now because I'll be informed before the next time you test it?"

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r_callen
2012-03-18 03:40 am UTC (link)

"I'll remind you whenever you need," he answered.

"Pretty much." Robert snorted, before growing serious. "He hates it. I mean at the start it was physically painful, too much at once and he learned to focus on what was close, heart beats help, which is why he can recognize mine and the baby so easily, now it's like he can pick up everything, but he still has the control to separate them. He doesn't want to know, which is kind of weird. I'd have blackmail material on everyone by now, but I'm thinking that the moment his sight is back to normal, then he'll be able to shut everything out unless he wants to hear it."

He raised an eyebrow. "I try things all the time. I didn't know I had to tell you. I wasn't alone and this was before he lost his sight, so the requirements were covered." Of course, the part about a foreign nation and dinner were not part of the rules, but Robert was fine with only partial truths. "I can also do a lot more trips now without tiring. Evacuating at the same distance as the base would prove much easier and less lethal. Now that I'm back in training, I plan to try even more, but we can do it during the day if you want. I really need to see how many trips I could safely make, although that depends on how far I'm taking everyone."

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g_callen
2012-03-18 04:13 am UTC (link)

"Maybe not so weird. The son-in-law was the same when he first got his. Hasn't changed much, although he's less shy about using it when he needs to. But, I know he's found out more about me in our training than he ever wanted to know. Probably many things he wishes he could forget." G knew he wished Marty could forget most of what he'd found in G's head. "I'll just count us lucky the men getting these abilities have scruples." They would need to have a conversation with Renko soon. The man needed training, but G had waited hoping his sight would improve.

"Three hundred miles? You don't think that at least warranted a heads up? Maybe a 'by the way, in case I can't make it back, don't worry'?" He kept the frustration out of his voice, but inside it kept churning. Was it really too much to ask for a warning when his own brother tried this kind of thing? What if he hadn't made it back? What if he'd been hurt making the jump? But, what was the use in complaining when it did no good? Instead he focused on the rest. "We can discuss evac after my partner and I get back from our trip. We'll know more what sort of distance you'll need to train for after that."

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r_callen
2012-03-18 04:20 am UTC (link)

"You mean instead of someone like me," he said grinning. "Yeah, I guess you're lucky, because I wouldn't pretend not to know or forget." He might not used it as much as he claimed he would, but he wouldn't forget.

"I knew I'd make it back. I was tempted to try for LA, but that's too much, at least for now, although I can tell you that I wasn't as tired as I was after we left the base. I don't know how much it's training and how much it's my metabolism regulating itself. I don't feel like I've trained enough to have improved this much," he explained. "And fine, we'll talk later. I'll even tell you before hand what I'm trying." At least if he wasn't disappearing with Mike, but he doubted that would happen with Liam. "Now, go do your shopping before you end up starving this week."

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