Have a seat, we’ll do a crash course.
Who: Lorna and Shepard What: Catching up When: 11/4 Where: The Ranch Status: Complete Rating: PG-13
Lorna was late to work because she forgot how to work her scooter and also because she forgot how to get to the ranch. She was also having trouble with her clothes. Six years of wearing corsets had changed her shape, and nothing quite felt comfortable anymore.
Which was why she was wearing a corset under her work clothes. She ditched the scooter by the fence and went to tell Wrex she was sorry for being late.
She blinked when she saw Shepard in the office, then realized her mistake. “Oh, hi!” She tried to hide her momentary confusion.
“Hey! Wow, you kind of grew up. And out.” Shepard looked at her admiringly.
Lorna laughed. “Some of that’s the corset.” She looked around, shaking her head a little. “I have no idea if I remember how to do my job.”
She nodded. Scott had filled her in on some of it, and she hadn’t really batted an eye, so she gestured with a hand. “Have a seat, we’ll do a crash course.”
Lorna laughed and sat down. “Have you been settling in okay?”
“Much easier than I thought I would, except Wrex apparnetly kept a lot of paper records.” She made a face. “That man belonged in the highlands.”
Lorna snorted. "I missed digital records so much in the past." She laughed a little. "Do you have the list of stuff we planned for spring? I think that will be an easy place for me to start."
“Yeah, hold on.” Shepard pulled open a few drawers then some stacks of papers and held them out. “Already digitized these. I’ll email you them as well.”
“Thanks. I’m really lucky my computer remembered all my passwords.” She laughed a little, nervously. She felt so different, and she thought that if she didn’t still have her green hair nobody would recognize her. “I don’t know what I’m going to tell the kids.”
“Could have poked Kitty if you’d forgotten,” Shepard replied. She probably wouldn’t have. “Tell them you suffered a rice picker accident.”
Lorna snorted. "And what, bought myself bigger boobs to console myself?" She asked with a laugh. "Maybe I'll just try to play it off like it didn't happen."
“Probably best. Most people are too polite to ask, and those that aren’t wouldn’t bat an eye at time travel.” She winked.
Lorna laughed. “You know, these kids are going to have a pretty skewed view of the world when they get out of here.” Even if it was more correct, she wasn’t sure how much it would help them overall.
“Half of them are already skewed as it is. I’m hoping some of our partnerships will help with things.” She thought about Ororo and smiled.
“That’s the spirit.” Lorna said with a snort. “I mean, I guess it’s realistic.”
“What else can I do? Sit around and mope?” Wrex was gone, her girlfriend was sick. Shepard felt oddly alone in the world, now. None of her crew was here. She had to make a new crew, now.
Lorna shrugged. She’d been alone in the world too, and she didn’t have any answers. “Don’t lose hope. Sure half the kids are such huge jerks with such messed up pasts that they’ll never truly recover, and we’re fighting a losing battle. But we’re going to lose worse if we don’t have faith in these kids, including the fucked up shitheads.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have faith,” she answered, honestly. “I’m really good at winning lost causes.”
“That’s the job description.” Lorna said with a laugh.
“Damn right. Never going to give up even when the odds are long. Don’t tempt me to go into speech mode.”
“I wouldn’t even know what to do if the odds weren’t stacked agianst me.” Lorna said with a shrug. “That’s part of why I took this job in the first place.”
“Well, I’m glad you decided to come back. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you didn’t want to.” It would have left her in a lurch, but she would have figured out something.
“What, because Wrex is gone? I’m gonna miss him, but I have faith in our work. It would be the worst betrayal I could imagine to leave this place just because he left.” She shrugged a little. “Making the world a better place is worthwhile, and that’s always going to be a goal I want to pursue.”
“I mean your...little adventure.” She waved a hand at Lorna’s boobs.
Lorna rolled her eyes. “You know the rest of me changed too.” She wasn’t too bothered, though. “Why? What else am I going to do?”
“I don’t know. That’s a question you’d have to ask yourself. But I’m glad you’re back.” Shepard grinned at her. “This place wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Lorna smiled back. “Yeah, because I’m awesome. So I guess I should go look and see what homework I neglected over my long weekend.”
Shepard patted the files. “Enjoy.” She looked smug.
Lorna laughed and took her files. “Just me, twenty kids, and a bunch of mud. Sounds like heaven. See you at lunch, boss.”