Who: Martha Jones and Felicity Smoak When: Backdated: Sometime in the first week of February. Afternoon. Where: Coffee Shop Near the Hospital What: Random Encounter and Chatting Rating: Family Friendly Status: Complete
Martha had just gotten off a twelve hour shift and while she should be going home to go to bed so that she’d be rested later on when she saw Mickey that night, she found herself, instead, stopping in at a coffee shop near the hospital. Truthfully the last thing she needed right now was a coffee, but she also wanted to make it home safely and at the moment she could barely keep her eyes open. Just because she didn’t live that far from the hospital didn’t mean she couldn’t get into an accident on the way. So stepping into the coffee shop, she made her way to the counter and ordered a small, just enough to wake her up long enough to get home and change.
Felicity smiled at the cute barista who handed her her change and drink. She thanked him and started to turn, almost walking straight into a lady behind her in the queue but luckily managed not to spill anything. “Oh god! I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” she asked apologetically, holding out a hand as if the gesture would help the woman ascertain if she was ok or not.
Martha hadn’t even noticed the blond woman until they’d almost collided and Martha rubbed her eyes for a moment, “No, I’m sorry. I obviously wasn’t watching who was in front of me.” She was definitely going to be sleeping for the rest of the afternoon once she got home, but at least she wasn’t as tired as she had been while she’d been pulling double duty not too long ago. Now that had been the worst, “I’m fine. Are you alright?”
“Woah! Yeah, I’m fine, but you look like you’re ready to drop,” Felicity said, concern rising for the woman she had run into. “Here, sit down and I’ll get you a coffee, do you drink espresso?” she guided the woman to a nearby seat and settled her there, putting her cappuccino on the table.
Martha hadn’t expected to be waited on, especially not by someone she’d almost bumped into, but she was too tired to argue at the moment. “Thanks. No, just black for now. I just need it long enough to get home.” She’d be sure to pay the other girl back before she actually left, but for now she just let her guide her over to a nearby table and sat down.
“Ok, straight black, I’ll be back in a second,” Felicity told her and rushed back to the counter, apologising to the one person she happened to barge in front of and explaining the situation to him and the barista. Despite looking disgruntled, the man obliged her and the man behind the counter made her up a black coffee, which, after paying for it, she rushed over to the woman. “Here you go,” she placed it on the table in front of her. “Are you ok?”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it,” Martha said, sitting up as she took the cup from the blond and took a sip before answering her question, “I just had a long shift. I’m a doctor at St. Joseph’s.” She took another sip of her coffee, already feeling a little refreshed from the coffee, “Figured I’d come get a cup of coffee so that I’ll be sure to get home. Coffee here is better than at the hospital.
“That’s all right,” Felicity told her, sitting down opposite the woman. “I was worried I’d be taking you there if I didn’t get you a coffee STAT,” she joked awkwardly. “Sorry, hospital jokes are probably the last thing you want to hear right now, do you live far from here?” she asked.
Martha laughed, shaking her head, “No, it’s fine.” She took another sip of her coffee, “Garden Grove. It’s like ten minutes away, but you never know what can happen in ten minutes.” If her eyes closed for even one second while she was driving, it could result in an accident, “I’m Martha, by the way. Martha Jones.” Now that she was a little more alert, it only seemed fair that she introduce herself so that the blond would know who she’d bought coffee for instead of thinking of her as some stranger.
“Felicity Smoak,” she held out her hand to shake Martha’s. “Nice to meet you Martha. Well let me know when you’re ready and I could drop you off if you like,” she shrugged with a smile.
“It’s nice to meet you too. Thanks again for the coffee, Felicity.” She smiled at the blond then shook her head, “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got my car out there. A few more sips and I’ll be good to go.” She knew that even after the coffee, once her head hit her pillow, she’d be asleep, so she wasn’t too worried about being too wide awake to get some sleep once she got home.
"You're welcome. I needed to tick off 'do a good deed' for my day anyway," Felicity joked then took a sip of her own drink. "If you're sure, it's no bother to me. I kind of run a company now so it's not like anyone's going to report me to the boss for being late," she laughed.
Martha laughed and placed her cup on the table, “Well, you’ve helped wake me up so that I can get home safely, so there’s your good deed right there.” She was glad that there were still some good people in the world. When Felicity mentioned running her own business, Martha became curious, “What kind of business?” She might have been tired, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t spend a few minutes to get to know Felicity. She didn’t want the girl to think she was rude or anything.
"We do specialist IT consultation," Felicity told her. "Basically people come to us if they need something finding out or someone finding out and we use our vast array of skills to get it done," she told Martha. Which was pretty much what she did without using the ugly 'H' word.
“That’s pretty cool,” Martha never would have guessed that a girl as young as Felicity would be running a company, “My boyfriend works in computers.” She added, taking another sip of her coffee. “How’d you get into that? And how long have you been doing it?”
“Cool, what does he do?” Felicity asked. “I’ve always been a bit of a nerd,” she shrugged, looking down at the coffee cup warming her hands. “Been breaking down and building computers since I was about four, ha...programming,” she almost said the ugly ‘H’ word but caught herself and changed it into something more...legal. “Since I was about five. Been struggling to make ends meet ever since until I came across John Connor. He offered me a job where I got to use my...my full skill set,” she smiled ruefully. “He left a couple of weeks ago to get some better care for his mom who’s in a coma and left his company in my hands,” she shrugged again. It was still pretty hard to believe that someone trusted her that much.
“He works for Western Digital right now. He also enjoys breaking down and building computers.” Martha told Felicity as she took another sip of her coffee. She did notice the way the girl paused before certain words, but she didn’t think anything of it. Besides, in her dreams she’d gone a few things that weren’t strictly legal, so she had no room to judge. Not that she would have even if she hadn’t been having the dreams, “I could never do some of the things that Mickey can. For me, I know how to surf the web and shop on-line, but don’t even try to talk to me about the motherboard and this and that and making it run faster or video cards. Martha wasn’t stupid when it came to computers and she could work things out when it came to it, but she wasn’t as deeply tech savvy as one had to be in order to be able to take apart and build a computer.
Felicity laughed at that. “Well, I think I am most certainly the odd one out,” she smiled wistfully. “Girls in IT, especially in senior positions, are almost certainly a rarity, but I’d like to think of myself as a trailblazer,” she joked. She didn’t feel that way, but she probably should, after all she had been pretty much gifted her ideal job.
“Hey, I’m all for girls being in charge.” Martha grinned, sitting up a little straighter in her seat, “I’m impressed though. I have to admit. It’s got to be a lot of work, but you seem like you’re handling it well.” Felicity didn’t seem frazzled or anything so Martha assumed she had everything under control at her company.
Felicity shrugged, she wasn’t really one who got stressed over work, she just dealt with it. “Delegation is a wonderful thing,” she joked. “And a key word in management,” she winked at Martha.
Martha laughed and nodded, “I wonder how Mickey would do with a boss like you.” She knew that working with other people who were also dreamers made things easier sometimes, but she was mostly just saying whatever came into her head at the moment and not really serious about it. She was exhausted after all.
“It depends, if he’s serious all the time then not too great,” Felicity smiled. “I like to have fun with my work or else, yknow, what’s the point?” she shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee. “How about you? How long have you been a doctor?”
Martha laughed and shook her head, “No, Mickey isn’t too serious at all.” Sure he could be serious when he needed to be, but for the most part, Mickey’s sense of humor was one of the things that Martha found attractive about him, “I finished my residency a little over a year ago.” It was kind of crazy to think that she’d been a fully certified doctor for a whole year already, but at the same time, it made her feel accomplished after all those years of schooling.
“How is he at making coffee?” Felicity asked, half-seriously. “Because there is one guy who works for me who insists on making coffee and he is absolutely terrible. He won’t hear any different mind you, but maybe having someone who can show him how real coffee is made will teach him,” Felicity joked. “Cool, so what are you specialising in?”
“He’s got pretty good coffee making skills.” Martha smirked, finishing off her own coffee on placing the empty paper cup on the table, “I’m an MD. I do rounds and see patients when they come in and a whole bunch of other things. It can be hard sometimes, but I actually met my boyfriend for the first time when he came in thinking he needed stitches.” That reminded Martha of the fact that in only a few short months, her and Mickey would have known each other for a year and not long after that would be the one year anniversary of when they started dating.
"Seriously? Stitches? What had he done to himself?" Felicity asked laughingly.
“He’d been out and something shoved him as they went by and he fell into a wall and scraped up his arm.” Normally Martha wouldn’t talk about a patient outside of the hospital, but Mickey wasn’t just a patient anymore. He was her boyfriend so she was allowed to talk about something like a scrape. “He didn’t need stitches though. Just needed to be washed out and wrapped.”
“Sounds like he just wanted to get some attention,” Felicity joked.
Martha laughed and gave a small shrug, “Well, it worked. He got it.” Rolling her shoulders, she sat up a little straighter, “I’d love to stay and chat some more, but I should get home and get some sleep. Thank you so much for the coffee,” It was nice to know that there were still some people out there who would help a stranger. “What do I owe you?”
“Oh nothing, it’s on me,” Felicity waved off her offer to pay. “It’s only a coffee, not like you asked for the Mona Lisa or something,” she shrugged nonchalantly. “Are you sure you’re ok to drive?”
Martha smiled and got to her feet, taking the empty cup with her to throw out, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m only about ten minutes away. Thank you again. It was nice talking to you Felicity; maybe we’ll run into each other again.”
“I hope so, just...maybe not at your place of work,” Felicity joked, rising to her feet to and picking up her cup. “Great to meet you too, here’s my card if you ever need anything nerdy or anything,” she shrugged, fishing out a business card from her handbag to hand over to Martha.