InsaneJournal

Who: John Crichton and Sharon Carter
Where: Baxter Bakery
When: Late July
What: Random Encounter
Status: Complete
Rating/Warnings: Low/None


John didn’t often do café’s, but when he did, he liked to take his time deciding what he should buy. A task made even harder in this cafe because they offered drinks with sparkling milk; a novelty which certainly piqued John’s interest. He turned to the lady stood in the queue behind him for advice, “Excuse me Miss, don’t suppose you have a recommendation?”

Sharon had the morning off, so she’d been out jogging. She needed something refreshing to drink (something other than water) so she’d stopped by Baxter Bakery. It was close to the park where she jogged, anyway. And she had her earbuds in. The man in front of her in line turned around to ask her a question. Unfortunately, she didn’t pull out the buds in time. She tugged them out and gave him a curious and apologetic smile. “Sorry?”

“Sorry, didn’t realise you had the…” John pointed to the earphones in her hand. “I was just wondering if you had a recommendation was all,” he referred to the menu above the counter.

“Oh.” Sharon shrugged her shoulders a little and gave him a smile. “No big deal. Just music.” Easily paused. She did so, clicking a button on her phone. “...Um… the sparkling lattes here are fantastic. I always get the five grain muffin. It’s bran, but … I don’t know. She adds honey or something, and it’s really really good.”

“Hmm...sparkling lattes you say…” John considered. “Well, that ticks three of my favourite boxes; coffee, shiny things and suggestions by beautiful women,” he grinned at her broadly before holding out a hand to introduce himself. “John Crichton.”

Sharon found herself flushing before she could help it. “Random compliment from a handsome stranger. I think I’ll take it,” she said, a smirk curling the corner of her lips. “Sharon Carter.” She added, then reached forward and shook his hand.

“I should hope so, I don’t hand them out to just anyone you know,” John grinned back, squeezing her hand gently. “Now this is going to sound like a line but, do you come here often?” he asked, admiring her face.

Sharon laughed. She released his hand and used both of hers to wrap up her earbuds around her phone. “That does sound like a line. But yes, I do. I like this place a lot. A lot of locals come here.”

“Can’t believe I’m only just finding it,” John laughed. “You’re local then?” he asked conversationally, moving forward as the queue did.

“Yes. Well, as of a few months ago.” Sharon said. “I think I assimilated pretty quickly. Working for the PD. How about you?”

“A few months ago? Where are you from originally then?” John asked. “You’re a cop? That’s pretty cool, how long have you been doing that?”

“I was undercover in New York for eighteen months. Before that I was in Virginia for a couple years.” Sharon explained. “Yeah, Detective. Homicide. But I’m looking to switch things up pretty soon. My partner’s leaving for a new job, so it feels like a sign the times are changing.”

“What sort of thing are you looking for now then? Similar sort of gig or something completely different?” John asked, shuffling forward a little bit more with the queue.

“Not sure, really. Private security, maybe? Or I might see about a transfer in the department.” Sharon said, and shrugged her shoulders. The line moved forward. “It’s your turn.”

“Oh, thanks,” John stepped up to the counter and smiled at the waiter. “Hi, can I get two sparkling lattes and two multi grain bran muffins please?” he looked over his shoulder at Sharon and gave her a quick wink.

Sharon raised both eyebrows, then broke into a small smile. When he was finished ordering and paying, she stepped up. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.” But she accepted the bran muffin on a plate.

John shrugged and picked up his plate and they moved to a nearby table to await their drinks being made. “I felt like it, call it my good deed for the day,” he smiled at her. “So you said your partner’s moved on. Where to? Would you consider following him there?”

“He’s working for the Agency now. I think that’s the sort of place that you need to be invited even for an interview.” Sharon said, following him over to sit at the table. She sighed gently. “It’s… he and I got on really well, and I’m sort of a black sheep amongst the rest of the old badges I work with.”

“A black sheep? Why do you say that?” John asked with a frown, unwrapping the casing from his muffin.

Sharon started to pick the seeds off the top of hers. It was honey bran, sweet and moist, but it also had the strength and fiber of those dull, dry ones out there. And the seeds were awesome. Sunflower and poppy. She shrugged her shoulders. “They think I should get back in the kitchen, if you know what I mean.”

“Seriously? There are still people out there who think like that?” John asked. He knew that even in the science community there were those who thought like that, but John had always been surrounded by intelligent woman like Sam Carter who gave him a run for his money. Any brief thoughts anyone had of telling Sam to get back in the kitchen were quickly dispelled as she intellectually wiped the floor with them.

“Maybe they’re all focused into the homicide department of OCPD.” Sharon said with a gentle shrug of her shoulders. “I dunno. But it’s made me feel… a touch uncomfortable.”

Their drink orders were up, so Sharon stood to collect them. She brought them both back to the table with a couple of straws and sat down again. “What did you say you do for a living?” She asked, finding that this guy was easy to talk to.

"I didn't," John shrugged with a grin. "I'm a professor in astrophysics and cosmology at the university," he told her. "I specialise in wormhole theory."

“Holy shit,” Sharon said, then broke into a huge smile. “Really? You’re far too handsome to be that much of a nerd,” she teased. “How… how does one even get into that line of work?”

“I uh...I like space,” John laughed and grinned, cheeks colouring a little at her compliment. “Always have done since I was a kid and then I just made a career out of it, I guess,” he shrugged. “Besides, I played football in school too, so I wasn’t a total nerd,” he winked.

Sharon chuckled. “Of course you weren’t. Poindexter.” She nudged his elbow with her own. “Man. Doesn’t it make you feel small, though? I’ve been watching the Cosmos remake with Neil Degrasse Tyson, and … every time it’s over, I feel like I’m microscopic and completely insignificant.”

"Oh! Oh!" John put a hand to his chest pretending to be hurt by her words. "Poindexter? You wound me madam!" he grinned at her teasing, gazing at her face as she spoke about the Cosmos show. "It sure does. That's one of the reasons I got involved with the field. If can't just be us," he shook his head in wonder. "At least it's not in my Dreams," he shrugged.

He had a nice grin. It made hers a bit brighter. “Oh?” Sharon asked, raising an eyebrow. She lifted her drink to sip, but didn’t actually do so until after her next sentence. “You dream about Aliens, then?”

“Yeah,” John sighed heavily. “I mean I’m not an alien in the Dreams, I just get shot through a wormhole into this whole alien world, in the middle of the space battle where my ship hit another ship. Then I got...tractor beamed onto another ship, where little tiny robots injected me with translator microbes and I met a huge alien who used his tongue to knock me out,” he told her.

Sharon had about a thousand questions, but his last sentence was the kicker. “Wait wait wait… his tongue??”

"Oh yeah but not in the fun 'I'm really enjoying getting to know you' kind of way," John winked at her cheekily. "I was in the middle of explaining myself and this guy D'argo, who's stood about ten feet away bear in mind, opens his mouth, his tongue shoots out, hits me in the neck and drops me to the floor," he used his hand to emphasise the tongue shooting out. "Next thing I know I'm waking up naked in a cell," he shook his head, returning to his bran muffin. "How about you? You get any of these funky Dreams?"

Sharon laughed. He was pleasant. The wink was amusing. So far, things were turning out quite nice. Good muffin, good drink, good company. She blinked at him, though. “Naked in a cell? This sounds a lot like… Alien Abduction.” She kidded. “Me? Yeah, but mine aren’t nearly as interesting.”

“Yeah, but it ended up better than some of those other abduction stories,” John joked. “I just got beaten up by a hot chick in leather. No probing at least,” he chuckled before taking a sip of his drink. “Tell me about ‘em,” he smiled at her, thoroughly enjoying this afternoon chat. Sharon was funny, intelligent and gorgeous. He was having a good time this afternoon.

“That sounds more like the beginning of a porno than anything else,” Sharon teased. She sipped again from her own drink, then set it back down. “Oh, well… it’s a lot like my own story. I grew up in Virginia here and in the dreams. Biggest difference is my Aunt--she’s my cousin in the real world--she worked for this place called SHIELD… and when I was a kid, she told me all these amazing stories about a hero called Captain America. Well, when I grew up, they found Captain America in some ice, and thawed him out. I went to work for SHIELD like my auntie. It’s… kind of a boring story.”

John threw his head back and laughed raucously at that. “I love it, a porno!” he cried back, wiping his eyes. “You work for SHIELD? That’s really cool! What sort of things do you do?”

“Well, it’s… I’m trained to do all sorts of things. But my current assignment is undercover work. A lot like I do--did--in this world. I’m a plant. Living next door to Steve Rogers to protect him.” Sharon replied, bashfully.

“A plant? That’s pretty awesome,” John grinned. “What sort of things are you trained for then? Can you do martial arts and things like that? Disarming bombs?” he asked, sipping from his drink.

Sharon chuckled softly. “Well… yes. I went through years of training. Worked my ass off, really. More than they made me do in this world.” She admitted, then lifted her coffee for a sip. “I mean, no more training than a professor of astrophysics would need…” She teased, grinning.

“Hey now! Everyone knows how to disarm a bomb! You cut the red wire!” John joked, laughing heartily and watching her face. “At least that’s what they tell you in the movies!” he defended, still smiling.

Sharon grinned brightly. “Yeah, that’s a really good way to get yourself blown up.” She said, teasing, and sipped from her coffee. Her day was drastically better. “Oh, hey,” she pulled out her phone to check the time. “I should probably get going. Gotta finish my jog before heading in to work.”

“Oh ok, well uh, can I call you?” John asked, hopefully. “Maybe we can meet up for a beer or something?”

Sharon went rather pink. Was he… asking for her number? Like a boy interested in a girl? Or was he just making new friends? Was he just being polite? She nodded, breaking into a smile. “Sure.” And then she gave him her number.

“Great, I’ll uh...I’ll give you a call,” John grinned broadly as he looked at her blushing an incredibly pretty pink. “It was lovely to meet you Sharon, thanks for taking pity on this lonely Southern guy,” he held out his hand to take hers.

“Hey, no problem.” Sharon reached out to shake his hand, then lifted her earbuds to plug them in once more. “...It was nice meeting you, too.” She gave him another smile, then headed out of the cafe. She was feeling pretty good about herself.

Well, that wasn’t what John had expected to happen with his day out, but if he were honest, it couldn’t have gone any better.