WHO:Joan Watson & Audrey WHEN: September sometime WHERE: Baxter's WHAT: Working women catch up WARNINGS: Nada STATUS: Gdoc
Audrey was hot. She’d been out delivering goods to other restaurants in the area, and running around in the heat was pretty awful. So she was sweaty and disgusting when she made it back to the bakery, and was delighted to find that it was super cool and comfortable inside there. Even though they had a couple of things cooking in the back, the heat hadn’t reached the lobby. So Audrey grabbed an iced tea and headed into the lobby to sit for a few minutes and get some paperwork done.
Joan had found a relatively quiet corner of the bakery and coffee shop to settle and work through things. She had a notebook and a series of files along with pictures to work her way through, establish a timeline, identify the contacts. She’d learned not to use her laptop at coffee shops because sabotage was decidedly easy and she’d rather not lose police files to this matter.
Consulting with the police force was rare here, they seemed to have a wide array of characters at any given time, so Joan was primarily a private investigator who just so happened to cross over into police business sometimes. One time led her to work with a detective who’d seemed open to her input, so much so that he’d requested her outside services to track down some missing persons.
Which was why Joan was three coffees deep in research and still with mountains to go. But at least she had a good place to work on it.
Audrey saw Joan working in the lobby, and grabbed a second cookie for her friend. She headed across the cafe, juggling her iced tea, her cookie, Joan’s cookie, and her paperwork, and paused at her friend’s table. “Hey,” she said, smiling warmly. “Mind if I join you?”
“Hey, no not at all.” Clearing some space for Audrey and her work, Joan pushed the opposite seat out for the woman, a smile on her face. “I could use the company.” Joan sometimes got herself lost in work, but from time to time it was a little easier to remember the passing of time with a companion, even if few words were exchanged.
“How’ve you been?”
Audrey slipped down into the chair, thankfully relieving herself of her items on the space cleared on the table. She offered up the second cookie for her friend, as she settled in the chair. “I’ve been good! Busy. The kids are getting so much bigger, they’re taking so much more of my time and attention.”
The offered cookie was taken with a smile and small thanks. “Busy with two kids is totally normal, you’re juggling it well.” Business and family were always a balancing act, and Audrey seemed to do it really well. “But you look well for it, idle hands and all that.”
And Joan knew plenty about not having things to do and how it was less than ideal. “Are the kids doing well though?”
“Thanks, Joan.” Audrey said, giving her friend a bright smile. “Can you believe that it’s almost Bea’s first birthday? And that Ben is going to be three this year? Time has just… flown.” She dug into her own cookie, tearing off bite-sized pieces and eating them while she settled out with the paperwork and whatever.
“They’re great. Merlin takes them to Stark with him each day because they’ve got an amazing child care program. Bea’s still nursing, but only at nighttime now. It breaks my heart a little. I’m gonna miss it when that ends.”
A few of Joan’s friends in New York had kids, and she knew that once they reached that year mark there was a pang for the ‘old days’. Babies were just so snuggly and sweet. “It comes on fast, doesn’t it. But you’ve got so many milestones ahead.” Because those were a constant cause for celebration and fun.
The fact that a big company like Stark had a childcare program didn’t surprise Joan in the least; Stark might seem like an all over the place CEO who invited strangers to his eclipse viewing parties, but evidently he was with the scope of things regarding his employees and their families. “That’s great, it’ll be good for them until school time, keep them engaged and bonding with Dad on the way there and back.”
“Exactly. Ben wants to be just like his daddy, and I can’t blame him. No idea what’s going on inside Bea’s head, though. She’s so little, she’s still trying to figure out what her personality is. Luckily, neither of them is showing any huge signs of magic so far. I have no doubt they’ll be magical, I just don’t know when it’s going to manifest and show itself.” Audrey leaned back in the chair and sighed. “I should probably go back into my office to get the scheduling done.”
Most parents didn’t need to worry about their children suddenly manifesting magic and accidentally spell something crazy. Joan could only imagine really. It was just an added stress for Merlin and Audrey as parents. “Maybe they’ll be entirely responsible with their power.” Or maybe all their toys would come to life and it’d be like Toy Story in that house.
“Busy work, never done.” Joan agreed, because Audrey likely still had mountains to get through. “If I’m still around when you’ve gotten through things, feel free to stop by, we should catch up more.”