Who: Dani, Lorna, and Wrex Where: The Ranch What: Planning a surprise for Dani When: Monday Warnings/Rating: PG Status complete
Now that she was back in her own body Lorna felt a lot more comfortable. During her time as Billy she’d been completely sober and chaste, so she’d spent a lot of time thinking. One of the things she’d thought up was something to cheer Dani up. The other woman seemed like she had a lot going on, and Lorna wanted to let her know that people were thinking about her.
She knocked politely on Wrex’s door before going in. She smiled brightly at him and took a seat. “I need your help.”
“What’s wrong?” He straightened, looking entirely much more sober than he had been just a moment ago. Not that he had been drunk, but he had had a distant, slightly fond and happy expression on his face.
“No no no, nothing serious.” Lorna said with a laugh. “I want to do something nice for Dani, but I need your help.”
“Oh. Huh.” He leaned forward, arms on the desk. “Okay. What do you have in mind?”
“Well, she mentioned that she hadn’t been to a beach in a long time. But you know her better than me, would a day at the beach be something she’d like? I want it to be a surprise, so she won’t be upset if we have to reschedule because Orange County is crazysauce.”
“Day at the beach huh?” Wrex thought about it. It might be good and relaxing. “Luring her out would be easy enough. I could probably have Kasumi distract her or something.”
“Yeah! That’s a great idea. We’ll get rid of her for a little bit, get our act together, and then let her know what we’re planning!” Lorna sounded excited and pleased at the idea.
Wrex grinned. “Yeah, get rid of her, so she doesn’t end up ruining our plans before they happen.”
"You guys are starting to sound like a bunch of goons from those Scooby-Doo shows," Dani remarked, from the doorway. She'd been passing by the office on her way out, and her ears caught the tail end of their conversation.
Wrex coughed and picked up a drink of water as he tried to think of a cover story. “Nothing. Just planning some … plans. For after work.”
Which sounded worse than it was.
Lorna squeaked when Dani came in, and looked insanely guilty as she turned around. “We’re selling the farm to oil prospectors even though we know there’s no oil.” It was the first Scooby Doo sounding plot she could come up with.
Dani folded her arms over her chest and looked at the both of them. There was definitely something not quite right going on here, and now that she'd entered the room they were both acting weird.
She wrinkled her brow for a second, "If you two have a problem with me being here you better say so."
He didn’t want Dani to think he had a problem with her, but he didn’t want to spoil the surprise yet, either. He glanced at Lorna, then at Dani again. “We don’t have a problem with you, Dani. I don’t want you to think that at all. We’re planning something for the ranch. It’s top secret.”
Lorna nodded. “That’s why we were talking about it here, instead of out in the open. You’ll know what this was all about soon.” Wait, no, that sounded bad. “It’s good stuff, don’t worry.”
"Good stuff that you have to get rid of someone over?" Dani didn't sound too convinced about this. No, she didn't sound convinced at all. She squinted at the two of them, trying very hard to remember things like counting to ten.
They were acting really awkward now, and not telling her what was going on. What could possibly be going on at the ranch that was so secret they couldn't trust her?
"You can't trust me with it, is that it? Yeah, I don't blame you. Hard to trust someone who's so perfectly good at ruining everything they get near."
This wasn’t going the way Wrex wanted it to go. Someone recovering the way Dani was was already fragile, and they were making it worse instead of making it better. He held up his hands in an appeasement gesture. “That’s not it. Nothing to do with trust, kid. It’s just we can’t tell you because … well you ever open your Christmas Present before christmas and spoil the surprise?”
Lorna wisely chose not to say anything. She was only going to make things worse. Being an extrovert didn’t make her good with people.
"Not really, no," Dani replied, raising one of her eyebrows. She wasn't as angry as she'd been a second ago; Her brain's gears were starting to turn and her arms dropped to her waist.
"You want to get rid of me so that you can ... plan a surprise for me for Christmas?"
“Sooner than Christmas.” Wrex rubbed the back of his neck and looked a little sheepish. “I’m not firing you or kicking you out. I’m a Kroger, not an asshole.”
“Why would he be talking to me about it if it was something important?” Lorna shook her head. She knew her place in the pecking order, and it wasn’t high enough to even hear about important stuff before it was generally announced.
"Because... I don't know. I'm stupid sometimes. And you sell yourself short a lot. You're more important than you think you are."
Dani threw her arms in the air, then rubbed at her face with her hands.
"God, you guys. I swear the thing I've learned here is not to ever eavesdrop on the office while you're walking past."
“... Are we cool?” Wrex asked, trying the vernacular of the younguns.
Lorna snickered. “That might be a good policy, though Kasumi’s car isn’t in the lot so I can see why you’d think it was safe.”
"So I'm just going to ... Hah!" Dani snorted, then pointed at Lorna like she agreed with that phrase entirely.
She ran her hands up into her hair, then, and nodded, "Fine, we're cool. Do you need me to vacate the premises so you can continue to talk about me and plot some kind of surprise for me behind my back?"
Wrex squinted his eyes, trying to figure out the comment about Kasumi. Then he darted his eyes when he got it and cleared his throat. “Yeah. Yeah that’s good Dani. Why don’t you give the horses a check...”
Lorna giggled at Wrex and Dani’s reactions. She was glad they’d avoided any major drama.
"I thought you were a Kroger, not a mind reader," Dani joked. Her anger was already forgotten, cooling off as quickly as it'd come. She was in a much better mood now - if a little intrigued by the idea that they'd be planning a surprise for her at all, "I was just heading that way anyway. I'll see you guys later."
She waved at both of them, then headed out, closing the door behind her.