Peter Kimura Whelan (itakunai) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-03-31 13:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [03] march, pete whelan, savannah posey |
Who: Pete Whelan & Savannah Posey
Where: The LBJ Library
When: Backdated to 3/7/19
What: Old friends catching up over lunch. It doesn't go well.
"This is nice," Pete said as he took a seat on the couch in Savannah's office, a sack lunch in his hands. "Delivery and everything." (One of the runners from the kitchen had dropped off lunch for them a few minutes ago.) If they'd scheduled this lunch date for just a few days ago, Pete would've followed up the comment with a joke about how nice it was to be in a position of power. But ever since the word had spread about Zik, statements like that weren't so funny all of a sudden. So he unpacked his lunch -- noodle surprise -- in silence, then took a sip from the glass of water that had been brought for him. "How's everything going with you?" He asked then, twirling noodles around his fork. “It’s goin’ and I can’t stop it,” Savannah joked before she followed suit, eating her first forkful of noodle surprise. After a sip of water she shrugged a bit, adding, “Just when things finally calm down ‘round here, somethin’ else in the city starts blowin’ up. I really should be askin’ how you’re doin’ over at the Hospital.” He couldn't help but laugh at her joke, even though it spoke to the messiness that was life post-zombie apocalypse. If you couldn't find humor in life still, what was even the point? "There's always something," he agreed. "Things are okay. The intern's getting better each week, and our little side project's doing well." Savannah had helped to set up his second off-the-record patient visit, after all, and she was Lita's best friend. He would've been surprised if she didn't know about the traveling clinic by this point. Nodding along as Pete spoke, she said, “That’s good. I’m glad it’s been workin’ out well, so far.” She knew what they were doing was dangerous, especially while living at UMCB still. But Pete (and Lita… and even their intern, if it ever came to it) was always welcome to relocate to LBJ if he needed to. "Me, too. And hey, I didn't even ask you about your new ink." It was kind of hard to miss, seeing as how it took over her whole arm. Pete was fairly sure that he was safe in guessing that it was in honor of Gray, assbutt though he'd been while he'd been alive. "When did you get that done?" She held her arm out at a better angle to display the tattoo better and smiled at the fresh ink on her arm. “Couple of days ago. Itches like hell, but I’m glad with the way it turned out.” Looking up now, she smiled more cautiously. “At the Dog Park. A woman named Noa has a whole tattoo shop set up there. Guess there ain’t a lot of competition when scavengin’ for that stuff in the city, though, so she’s pretty well stocked.” "Oh." It was all he could to do suppress the mix of surprise and amusement he felt at the familiar name, knowing exactly who had given Savannah that tattoo. Hell, about a month or so he'd been in that tattoo studio himself, checking it out and thinking about scheduling a time to get his own ink touched up. The amusement was mixing with a weird sort of annoyance, too, as he looked at the wolf in the design. Not that Pete wanted to speak ill of the dead or anything, and he certainly wasn't glad that Gray had passed, but, well. The two of them had never gotten along and he wasn't the kind of guy to pretend otherwise just because the other one had gone and gotten shot. Suffice it to say Pete's life was a fucking mess, sometimes. But he had a feeling he wasn't the only one who felt that way. "Well, it looks really good," he said, steering his mind back to the subject at hand. "She did a good job." “Thanks,” Savannah said between bites. Pete paused for another couple of bites of food, nodding a little, then added, "I know her, by the way. Noa, I mean. She's, you know. Cool." Raising a brow at Pete, she tilted her head. “Cool?” She echoed back, trying not to laugh at his choice of word. The last time she described someone as “cool” was probably in the seventh grade. "Yeah. Cool. Like pretty much the opposite of Texas? Weather-wise, obviously." It was a terrible joke, but it kind of reminded Pete of when they'd first met and he used to rag on Texas to Savannah all the time. “I didn’t know you knew her. Last time I checked, I thought you weren’t too keen on people from the Dog Park,” she said, feeling a slight sense of annoyance, though she really wasn’t sure why. "I met her back in October, when it got blown up," he said, glancing over at her. They'd known each other for so long, it didn't feel like he was reaching to suspect that she wasn't feeling 100% about this topic. "I guess we kept in touch first about her stitches, but I dunno." He shrugged, feeling unsure about what else there was even to say or how to describe the complicated way he felt about the Dog Park and Noa both. "We don't really talk about the whole politics thing." Savannah let out a slow exhale, and shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I just didn’t realize that you were friends with her. But obviously I’m friends with her and think she’s really great so--that’s good that you think so too.” It was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? For Pete to see that the people at the Dog Park weren’t the enemy? "Yeah, it's good." Pete shrugged, shooting her another surreptitious glance as he tried to figure out what, exactly, was going on. She was bothered by something, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. In any event Savannah still felt weird about the whole situation, though wasn’t sure exactly why, but tried to push past those feelings so they could keep catching up. “So, anythin’ else new with you?” He was silent for a moment, focusing on his noodles and the fact that Savannah was being super weird. It wasn't something that concerned him to the point of ruining their perfectly nice lunch, though, so he let it go in favor of more neutral topics. "I mean, I guess not, besides working a little extra these days on top of the regular shifts trying to get Bea up to speed. I guess me and Lita are getting along better, too, which is helpful considering everything.” Savannah bit at her lip in amusement. Pete and Lita had never really seen eye-to-eye, but they were two of the most important people in her life so she was glad they seemed to be working out their differences. “Trying not to be completely weirded out by the fact that Zik's gone." He shot Savannah a smile. "How's the library treating you?" “It’s been good. I think we’re just about recovered from the mess we got into in January. We’ve been workin’ on puttin’ resource hangars in the other buildings and reinforcin’ the fences around the library. But other than that, it’s been business as usual.” Her words spoke of the Library’s status more than her own, but as Shelter Leader, much of her life revolved around the prosperity of the shelter. "That sounds like a good idea. I guess you never know when that kind of thing will happen." He paused again, noticing how eagerly Savannah seemed to be tucking into her food, and recalled how weird she'd been just a couple of minutes ago. Almost like she'd been jealous about him being friendly with someone else. And then he really looked at her, unable to help but notice that she'd put on some weight over the last couple of months. Certainly more than when they'd slept together a few months ago. Maybe he was biased from work, but he couldn't help but wonder if the moodiness and weight gain were due to something else… "Have you been feeling well?" he asked then, very carefully. "Any, you know…." Do you recall the last date of your menstrual cycle? seemed a weird question to ask. "Anything new going on with you?" She could privately admit to herself that she’d had a jealous flare-up at the idea of him and Noa together but now Pete was the one acting weird. Savannah set down her fork and looked across the table at Pete, her eyes narrowing slightly in confusion. “I feel fine. I don’t think I’ve even had a stuffy nose in, like, months,” she said. “I’m just really busy, tryin’ to make sure everythin’ here runs smoothly.” "Okay," he said, though the doubt lacing into his tone of voice continued to betray his true intentions. "I guess you just look different, is all. I mean, in a good way. Glowing, maybe." She looked down at her body, wondering what he could be seeing. She was definitely aware of her weight fluctuation over the past several months. When Gray died and she’d taken over leadership duties, she’d been a stereotype throwing herself into the running of the LBJ so she didn’t have to think about how sad she was. She’d missed more than her fair share of meals, sometimes because she forgot, but mostly because she just didn’t have the appetite. Without the ability to go to Ann Taylor Loft and buy a new wardrobe, she kept wearing what she already had and could tell she’d lost weight by the way the fabric hung off her body. But slowly, that dulling of her senses had faded and she started having more good days than bad. With Maizie and Olivia to have dinner with every night, she stopped skipping meals. Her clothes fit more normally again, but honestly, she thought she looked better this way. She thought she looked healthier like this, but Pete’s concern was giving her doubts. Looking back up at him, she asked, “Do I not look okay?” "No, it's in a good way," he repeated while his mind tried to recall if he had possibly heard of Savannah having other sexual encounters over the last few months. He didn't think they were exactly on a level of best friendship where she'd openly tell him about that, but maybe Lita would if he asked… Or maybe he could just ask outright. After all, if he had inadvertently fathered a child, he should figure that out sooner than later. "I guess I was just wondering… I didn't knock you up or anything, right?" “What?” Savannah asked, the volume of her voice raising at the incredulity of his question. “Are you seriously askin’ me if I’m pregnant? With your baby?” "Well. Yeah, I guess I am." Except now that she'd basically reiterated it right back to him, it felt a lot more ridiculous than it had just a few minutes ago. There were about a dozen different responses at the tip of her tongue, ranging from ’What the fuck?’ to ’Are you sure you’re a real doctor?’ but somehow she managed to pause a moment, taking a deep steadying breath, before finally saying, “No, Peter, I’m not knocked up.” As much as she hated to admit it, the last time she’d had sex was with Pete on her birthday, but that had been… over four months ago. If she were pregnant, she would have known by now. And as a doctor (and an OBGYN at that) Pete should have known better than to ask her such a stupid question. Raking a hand through hair, huffing a sigh of annoyance, she continued, “Do I really look almost 5 months pregnant to you? I’m just not scary skinny anymore. Jesus Christ, you’re such an asshole.” Pete pressed his lips together in a valiant attempt to resist the urge to laugh; somehow, he had a feeling she wouldn't find the humor in this at all. "Okay," he agreed, trying an apologetic smile. "It was, you know. Just a sudden thought. That doesn't really make any sense, now that I think more about it. But I'm glad you're, you know… Eating better and everything." He gave her a thumbs up. Savannah put her fork down and pushed her noodle surprise away (she’d totally go back for it later) before running a hand through her hair. “Yeah, well, glad we cleared that up.” There was probably more they could talk about but honestly she was still annoyed and Pete giving her a thumbs up was really rubbing her the wrong way. “Y’know it’s probably time for you to go. I’m sure you have actual pregnant people to attend to and I have food to eat, so why don’t we just call it a day.” Pete looked down at his half-eaten bowl, then hers, then up to Savannah's irritated face. Yeah, there wasn't much of a chance of him turning this around today. She'd forgive him though, eventually. She always did. "You're right," he said, picking up his food and standing up. He gave her another apologetic smile, already regretting the choices he'd made just then. "I guess I'll see you next time." |