Jemma Simmons is a terrible liar (needanewplan) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-06-25 17:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, cosima niehaus, jemma simmons |
Who: Jemma and Cosima
What: Working and having a conversation that then takes a turn for the awkward.
When: Recently
Where: Lab at the Agency
Warnings: Low, references to drug use
Status: Complete upon posting!
Sometimes it still weirded Cosima out that Sarah and Felix were quite a ways behind her in their dreams. But she knew it was for the better that she’d finished her dreams, at least for the time being, because it meant that she wasn’t sick anymore. She and Jemma had spent long hours working on the cure for the illness that plagued the Leda clones. And by sheer chance luck, they’d gotten the Castor DNA as well when Cosima had been turned male a while back. The positive was that if any other Leda clones, or even Castor clones, showed up and fell ill due to their dreams, there was a cure.
And now she had a job working at the Agency with Jemma. Sure it was somewhat strange at times that her girlfriend was her boss, but it wasn’t like Cosima hadn’t worked with a girlfriend before. In her dreams, she’d worked with Delphine in Dyad’s lab for a while before that went to shit. And at the end of the day, working with Jemma meant she got to spend more time with her, and they could do some pretty amazing crazy science while at it.
“Hey so, what do you say to going to dinner and a movie some time this weekend?” Cosima asked as she finished making some notes about what she currently had under a microscope. She turned to look at Jemma, sliding her glasses back into place.
If there was one thing Jemma was good at, it was compartmentalisation. So while some might be concerned over the idea of a couple working together, especially with one as the boss, there was no issue for Jemma. When at work, they were coworkers, with Cosima as her subordinate in a strictly hierarchical sense. When not at work, then they were girlfriends and happy together, and in the almost year they’d been together now, had overcome a lot, probably far more than most people would think possible. It worked.
And well, the science was pretty crazy and amazing that they came up with. Especially when there wasn’t some sort of crisis that they needed to focus their attention on.
Having been looking at a petri dish at the moment, she blinked and looked up from what she’d been doing.
“Hmm?” As the question registered, she pushed up her own glasses. “That sounds fun. What did you have in mind?”
It wasn’t impossible to discuss things like dinner and movies while at work even with the compartmentalisation after all.
It really wasn’t that hard to keep her work and private life separate when at work. Besides, once in the lab Cosima basically went into scientist mode anyway. Though there were times the emotions got the better of her, but those had come before she’d begun working at the Agency and most had been while she’d been sick. Now, she was happy and she viewed it as just getting to spend more time with Jemma.
“There’s this movie called Embrace of the Serpent that’s loosely based on the journals of two explorers as they worked in the Amazon. The movie’s in Spanish, but I thought it was interesting at any rate.” There were plenty of other movies to choose from as well, but Cosima wasn’t going to make Jemma go see the new Captain America movie. She knew that was the same world from her dreams and that could be just a little awkward. But this movie had caught her eye, and she wondered if Jemma would be interested in it.
“Really? That does sound interesting.” And it did. While she tended to be more drawn in by documentaries, it sounded as though it would be similar in vein, even if the loosely based meant it was indeed a fictionalised telling of the story. Nor was she opposed to a movie that was in Spanish. Who wanted to be regulated to movies just because of the language? There were subtitles for a reason.
Though it was probably a good idea not to go see the latest Captain America movie. While her dreams hadn’t started up again, she knew they would soon enough. And even if she never interacted with any of the Avengers in them, she knew them here. Well. She know Natasha and Tony, and then Peggy. And the actions of the Avengers did have lasting effects in her dreams. Rather annoying when they were left having to clean up after them.
No. Avoiding watching a movie based in the world she dreamed of was definitely the better plan.
“It tells two stories, one that takes place in 1909 and one that takes place in 1940 involving an Amazonian shaman and his interactions with two scientists as he searches for a sacred plant in the Amazon. Obviously it deters from the actual events, but I still think it could be fun.” Cosima liked all manner of movies, really. She was flexible, even if her tastes tended to fall into the geek end of the spectrum more often than not.
But she would never make Jemma sit through any of the Marvel movies. If she wanted to watch those, she’d make sure she did it when Jemma wasn’t around. She was conscientious to not put Jemma in that awkward position. Not to mention Cosima would herself feel a little weird watching them now considering Peggy-freaking-Carter was here, and the freaking Black Widow was a co-worker. Cosima had a healthy dose of fear regarding Natasha, if only because she knew about that blackmail folder and knowing what she could be capable of when angered. However, she also respected Natasha.
“Very nice.” Even though fictionalised and liberties would obviously be taken, the story itself still sounded interesting, especially if it was either in tandem or.. Well, she had no idea how it would play out, but the way Cosima described it definitely caught and, more importantly, held her attention and interest. Which sometimes could be a difficult thing to be done, for certain. But this movie definitely had the promise to do as such so she was definitely on board with it.
There were enough awkward situations in this place. Like how she was coworkers with Martha Jones of Doctor Who but not able to say as much. So when the doctor did bring up her dreams now, she had to bite her tongue and pretend like she knew nothing about it instead of her quite extensive knowledge on the matter. Speaking of, “Martha said she wants to do some sort of dinner if you’re interested. No details on the when of it though.”
That was the other part of sifting through movies and documentaries that were showing in theaters. Cosima knew it would need to hold Jemma’s attention, which was why she steered away from the Hollywood blockbuster types. Those tended to be cookie-cutter plots anyway, and things Cosima would watch if she ever had trouble sleeping or was on her own. Unless Jemma expressed specific interest in it, of course. But at the very least, the fact the movie took place in the Amazon was interesting in and of itself. So much was unknown about the Amazon. So many species of plants and animals, many of which were still yet undiscovered.
“Oh yeah, I’m definitely interested. Any idea if it’s just us or is she thinking of doing a dinner for those of us who work here?” Because there was a difference between the two. Well, usually. Though if it was Martha throwing a dinner thing for those who worked at the Agency, it probably wouldn’t be a formal deal. Now if Peggy Carter was asking them to a dinner thing, then Cosima would dress more formally. Or as formal as she got, anyway. She’d at least cover her tattoos in that case.
Holding her attention was always a complicated matter. Mostly because the major blockbuster types had such atrocious plot holes and Jemma found it exceedingly difficult to suspend her disbelief in order to just enjoy the movie. But it was fine as this movie certainly sounded as though she’d enjoy the movie. Or at the very least, it should keep her attention.
“Not sure. Just a dinner she wants to put together. I know she mentioned wanting to invite The Doctor, so I imagine it will be friends. But she also has friends from work, so probably a combination.” Yes. There was excitement at the possibility of officially meeting The Doctor. Even if he went by John Smith here. It was still exciting.
It was a fact that Cosima could be considered a geek, though she was a bit of an understated one. While she wasn’t typically found to be reading comics or the like, she was very up with such things. She was a gamer, of the board games variety, and she enjoyed comics and was well-versed in pop culture. So when Jemma said the Doctor, she didn’t need to ask Doctor who? Well, not in a serious manner, at any rate.
“Doctor who?” She responded, but the grin on her face and the giggle that came out of her after saying it said she was merely quoting that running joke from the television show. “I hope she does invite him, he’d be an amazing person to talk to. In any regeneration.” There was excitement about the Doctor, but Cosima knew better than to divulge the fact she knew all of his story thanks to a television show. She’d just be inwardly flailing about it during the conversation.
And potentially flailing with Jemma about it before and after.
“Exactly.” Thank goodness her girlfriend knew what she meant. Though it also wasn’t that shocking that Cosima would know what she meant. Even if she didn’t watch the show, if she went to comic stores for her game purposes, there tended to be Doctor Who things there. But there was no concern or misconception that Cosima didn’t know just what Jemma was reacting to and excited about.
“But right?! It would be brilliant. I’ve noticed both the Tenth and Twelfth around on the network.” Because of course Jemma would keep tabs on that. She might not talk to them (yet) but if there were a reason to? She certainly would. Or flail if one ever responded to her. And flailing would be necessary.
Cosima grinned. “Whoever thought that the Doctors could be here!” If the Doctor Who fandom ever learned that the Doctor actually existed, there’d be trouble. But that could also be said for most people here. Like anyone from Marvel or DC. Lara Croft. Star Wars. Chaos would reign, so it was best that it was kept underwraps.
“I’ve noticed them too! Actually, I’ve talked to the Tenth Doctor before. He knows I’m a clone. But it’d be awesome to be able to pick his brain about anything else.” Her conversations with Ten hadn’t been the best considering they’d happened back when she’d been sick. Or just getting sick. Really, things in that time frame were a little hazy for her considering she’d gone into survival mode and focused everything she had on trying to find a cure.
“So exciting.” How people managed to keep from knowing that people from Doctor Who or DC or Star Wars existed, Jemma didn’t know. Then again, she found it impossible to actually mention it to Martha and usually she was really bad at keeping things like that secret. Yet it was like some sort of block. Perhaps that was how the general population felt as well.
“Really? Fascinating.” Then again, there was so much that had gone on while Cosima was sick and if there wasn’t one thing happening, there was another. So things getting lost in the haze wasn’t all that shocking. It all seemed to blur together. Goodness knew Jemma couldn’t keep track of their combined dream related traumas given the way they had lined up.
“It seriously is. Now hopefully we shall be able to keep our questions limited to this universe and not accidentally ask about things from the show.” Because Cosima was just as able to blurt out such things as Jemma was. There were times when she had no brain-to-mouth filter on her. She was terrible at keeping things to herself. Except for how she’d kept her illness a secret from her sisters for so long in the dreams. But that was different than the Doctor being there in front of her.
“I’m pretty sure I talked to him about clones and my illness before we really knew what the fuck it was. But you know, lost in the haze of everything that had happened back then.” Cosima was healthy now, thankfully, and yet she couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding, as if her dreams, whenever they returned, held something horrible. Getting the cure in her dreams would not come as easily as it did here, that much she knew for certain. Nothing ever came easy in her dreams, and when it did it was typically a Trojan Horse filled with Greeks.
“That would be most unfortunate.” And leave it to Jemma to understate how it would be to accidentally blurt out things they shouldn’t know to the Doctor, or any of the people from Doctor Who who might be at Martha’s get together. Whenever that might be. She had managed to keep from reacting as though she knew things when Martha was explaining it to her, so that had to be something. Right?
“Which would make sense. It’s very easy to get lost in a haze when so much is happening.” It was something they had worked through though. And while Jemma well knew how the dreams could be…. Even though Ward was dead and everyone back and things supposedly okay (No, not completely. Will had died to save her. People had been injured trying to rescue poor helpless Agent Simmons), she knew that it couldn’t last. It never lasted when things seemed to be okay for once.
“Yeah, and totally not the impression I want to leave on the Doctor. Especially the Twelfth Doctor.” While Cosima felt that Ten would probably just smile and be able to laugh it off (depending on what was blurted out, obviously), Twelve would probably be more inclined to get grumpy about it. And Cosima, while not a stranger to people being like that at her, didn’t exactly want to be on the Twelfth Doctor’s bad side.
She didn’t want to be on any of the Doctors’ bad sides, really. He had quite the temper regardless of regeneration when certain buttons were pushed.
They had definitely worked through that stage. It hadn’t been easy on either of them, or on Sarah and Felix. Cosima had managed to keep her cool for the most part, but some days the very real probability that she would die caught up to her and she’d snapped on a couple occasions. Or simply gave in to despair and wondered why they were even trying for a cure when they didn’t even know what they were looking for. But she’d gotten sense talked into her, the dreams had been benevolent and dropped the answers, almost literally, into her lap.
“Yeah, it can. And not just in bad times either. I mean, even when having fun things can get hazy. And I so don’t mean getting baked on weed.” Though an amused grin crossed her face as she remembered something. “Okay actually sometimes it is because of getting baked. Like the first time I tried it was at prom my junior year of high school.”
“That would get messy.” Really, avoiding being on the bad side of the Doctor, any version of the Doctor, was a good plan. The universe was very small when he was angry at someone and well… they only had the one planet here. So even smaller. No need to make this place seem small by accidentally upsetting the Doctor. Though Cosima was right that the Twelfth Doctor was the one more likely to get grumpy as opposed to the Tenth.
As Cosima started to ramble, Jemma had started to pay more attention to her work again, though there wasn’t any change. Instead she looked up from the notation she had made and quirked a brow. She never really did grasp the fascination with getting high. She wouldn’t begrudge her girlfriend it, but it just wasn’t something Jemma herself understood, nor did she really want to take part in it herself.
“Oh?”
At least with getting high, Cosima didn’t do it all the time. Even before she’d gotten sick, it was just an occasional thing she did. She hadn’t actually smoked while she’d been sick, mostly due to the fact she’d been certain Jemma would’ve read her the riot act for doing so when it was difficult enough for her to breathe normally, let alone throwing more crap into her lungs.
“It wasn’t something I’d gone in expecting to do. I mean, it was prom, but it was probably the most awkward night of my life.” Cosima went between looking at Jemma and checking things on her microscope as she spoke, gesturing wildly as she did so. The gesturing was normal for her when she spoke. “First off, it wasn’t exactly accepted to take someone of the same gender as a date to prom, so I went with a guy friend of mine as a platonic thing. Or so I thought. I mean, he knew I was into girls, but he apparently thought I still liked guys, too. He was also, like, one of the worst dancers ever. My feet were covered in bruises from how many times he stepped on them.” She shook her head at the memory, a soft chuckle to her voice.
Oh, the riot act definitely would have been read had Cosima tried to smoke while sick. With the state her lungs had already been in? It would have been completely counterproductive. Jemma did appreciate that it was only an occasional thing though. She wouldn’t begrudge it to Cosima, but it really wasn’t something she herself had an interest in.
“Yes… prom….” She knew of prom only in terms of what American movies showed. Yes, prom had started to become more of a thing in the UK thanks to the influence of movies, even as it was called something else. However, given how young she had been when she had gotten her A levels, it wasn’t like she herself had gone or even been asked. Would she have gone? Who knew. Jemma didn’t mind dances and social settings but given how isolated she’d been in school….
“That sounds very uncomfortable. I’m sorry?” Because really what else was there to say?
All in all, marijuana was not the worst drug that Cosima could use, and she at least did it in moderation. She wasn’t a pothead to an extreme like some people could be. But as it was, she was respectful to Jemma when she was going to smoke and didn’t do it right in front of her. Second-hand smoke wasn’t exactly a nice thing to inhale regardless of what was being smoked.
Now, it hadn’t quite occurred to Cosima that Jemma hadn’t been to prom. Even with Jemma being English, prom tended to be plastered across movies and TV often enough that people could be marginally aware of what it was. But Cosima being Cosima had missed the first cue of things taking a turn for the awkward.
“It was uncomfortable, but after a couple dances, I did make things clear to him. In retrospect, he actually kind of reminds me of Scott from my dreams. But that’s besides the point. Anyway, one of my friends wasn’t having the best prom either, so she grabbed my arm and we snuck off to the bathroom together. Turns out she’d managed to sneak a couple joints in, having gotten them from her older brother. Needless to say, we had a totally awesome prom after that point.”
Jemma was trying to pay attention or at least seem mildly interested, but everything Cosima was saying more or less was going right over her head. The basic premise she grasped. School dance. Dates thinking it was one thing when it was another. Getting high with another friend. But this was only an understanding of the theory of it all, not the actuality of it. So all she could really do was just nod along and make vague comments of the “mmhmm” type variety.
It wasn’t that she didn’t care or was uninterested in her girlfriend’s story but it was just…. Not something that kept her attention as she had no practical understanding to relate. Which wasn’t exactly uncommon.
“Yes. Needless to say….”
To Cosima’s credit, she did normally try to not go off on tangents so much about these kinds of things. But sometimes she just got carried away, which wasn’t uncommon for her. Cosima tended to get carried away by most things she had a strong interest or emotional investment in. And then sometimes she just babbled if she got nervous for whatever reason. She was just naturally talkative, and tended to go on about a variety of subjects.
This time, she heard the cue, and she did stop talking for a few moments. While she had come to the end of the story, more or less, she still paused, now feeling a bit awkward. She knew Jemma hadn’t had the same experiences, and not just because she’d grown up in a different country, but she’d also gone through school at an accelerated rate.
“So yeah, prom got hazy after that.” Cosima said in conclusion after the pause, remembering what had spurred her onto the story in the first place. She cleared her throat and looked over her notes again that she’d been taking for what she was working on.
Jemma did try to find something to relate to, but it wasn’t exactly easy. But she did pick up on the year. Junior prom…. So not the official one. Right? Well, there was the School Formal for the end of Year 11, and then for those who went on, at the end of their Sixth Form. Jemma just happened to graduate Sixth Form at 15, and Year 11 at 13.
“Junior prom is age 16 or 17 correct?”
She was pretty sure she had that right.
“My last few weeks of first year at Cambridge were hazy. I ended up making my own stimulant to keep going because of the hours I needed to put in for some year three courses, exams and lab time.”
That was it. That was how she could connect. The dreadful self made stimulant experience that really did not go as well as it could. Oh, she had done brilliantly, no one had realised she was falling apart. Even so though… and even if she had sometimes used it during the chaotic months of Cosima’s illness.
“Though I suppose really not the same.”
With a shrug, she noticed that the petri dish she’d been waiting on started to have a reaction.
“Oh! Would you look at that!”
And just like that, Jemma’s attention was fully on the science and she started taking notes quickly.
It was a two-way street when it came down to it. While Cosima was highly intelligent, she hadn’t gone through school at an accelerated rate like Jemma had. She well understood rigorous courses, but not the way Jemma did. Cambridge was one of the very top universities in the world, and Cosima knew coursework there would undoubtedly be way different than the course work she’d done at Berkeley or the University of Minnesota. She also couldn’t relate to going through college at a younger age than most did.
“Yeah, I was 17 for junior prom.” Cosima responded with a smile. Though upon hearing Jemma’s story, Cosima blinked. Okay so she wasn’t exactly surprised that Jemma had created her own stimulant, but a bunch of other things popped into her head.
“What stimulant did you create?” Did she actually want to know the answer to that? Who even knew, but the fact of the matter remained that Jemma could go technical and Cosima could understand. Chemistry wasn’t her strongest area in science, but she could follow along easily enough.
Then as Jemma got excited, Cosima turned her attention to the petri dish. “Oh whoa!” Cosima moved to get a better look at it. “Is that an unexpected reaction?”
Truth be told, Cosima probably wouldn’t want to know the type of stimulant she had created just because of what it meant, but there was science to it.
“I mean, I was sixteen at the time so it probably could have been better…” Because Jemma and her need to always improve and be the best in her competitive nature. Not that she would try to recreate it now because goodness knew all the people desperate to avoid sleep would want it and it would turn into a mess. But still, she was happy to go into the technicalities of the stimulant. At least until the reaction happened.
“I don’t think so. But this is fascinating.”