A litte R&R (Alec)

Training had been going well, but it was much more of a time sink than he thought it would be. Sure, he took into account the class preparations and time teaching, but he hadn't realized how -interested- his students would be in him, his background, his opinions, his time. Luckily, since he didn't know much about his past and had collected what few traces there were for safe keeping in case his memory slipped later, his privacy was mostly enforced. Surface things were apparent, but some of the questions seemed so odd. I mean, really. Why would he care if a Democrat took the presidency in the next election? Did humans worry about the political feelings that their salads might feel? Did the lion ponder the afterlife of the gazelle?

The worst thing was that the questions got the mind rolling...and you could end up in some very strange places with some of these ideas if you were tired and free associating. Entering their quarters, Alec smiled softly. Miles meant Ginnie was actually home, which was a pleasant surprise. Entering quietly, he unfastened the white leather top he wore for the trainings and walked up behind her. Kneeling, he wrapped her gently in his arms and glanced in front of her...it looked like she was working on something fun. Quietly, he asked,

"Do you ever wonder if catfish enjoy filtering that muck that they eat? I mean, are they designed for it and like it, or is it just programmed in there and they've got no opinion either way?"

Glancing down at the overlay in front of her, Alec scanned it briefly. It was a good setup, but it looked like there was a weakness in their tertiary system that would allow compromise of the first two layers...given a guess, he'd say it could create a cascading window opportunity, which is the worry with some of the more complex and layered systems that rely on too many variables. Wondering momentarily why she was looking at the schematics, he lost his train of thought. Her hair was busy smelling just too damn pretty. Allowing his nasal cavity a bit more of his attention, he breathed in her evening. She smelled like business as usual, and that was his favorite scent.

The door had beeped when Alec had gotten near it, but since the alert hadn't sounded she knew it was him. She stayed put, since she'd just about figured out how to get past the lazers. He wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into him.

"No, love, I can honestly say that I don't wonder about catfish eating habits."

Chuckling, she looked back down at the print outs and sighed. She'd lost it, letting her frustration show she sighed and tossed the paper down.

"I've had enough of this. How was your day?"

Feeling her lean, he took the opportunity to plop down on his butt behind her, stretching one leg forward in front of them both, leaning back slightly. Using the light pressure his arms were exerting on hers, he leaned until a pleasant and comfortable equilibrium was reached. Chuckling, he wondered at how complex the motion would be with an unfamiliar person...and had been at first. He'd wound up off the bed, on the floor, off his chair several times since they'd been together. But none of this was answering her question.

"Oh, things went well enough until the end. Wallace brought up human politics, and everyone wanted my opinion. When I asked them what they'd felt about the herd mentality of certain cattle, they looked at me strangely. I think Larson was offended when I explained that I thought about human politics about as much as humans considered the family lives of their hamburgers. It got me thinking though...do human politics really matter? So many of them are just pets of so many of us...it seems strange to look at it from the perspective of your food, especially knowing that anyone beyond a city council member is probably one of our pawns."

It was just as well. Left to their own devices, humans seemed to only want to fight, anyway. Alec was firmly convinced that civilization and law were created initially to ensure the tastiest of the food supply didn't manage to make itself extinct. Kind of like the chickens they debeaked and took the claws off of to ensure they didn't kill other chickens. Clever little monkeys were learning. Well...no harm in that as long as they didn't figure out the truth. Then numbers might be an issue.

Deciding the train of thought wasn't that interesting, Alec inhaled again, and savored the wave of comfort that Ginnie's scent brought him. Strange that a smell could do that.

"And how was yours?"

Ginnie wanted to laugh softly but did not. Half of her work life was human politics, of the dirty seedy sort, but politics just the same. Her gun supply depended on them, so yeah she thought they were important, mostly in the keep the stupid blind guy in power, so that he can't see what's going on in the dark, kind of way.

"Frustrating. I'm sorry I missed training today, one of the newbies detonated a pen bomb in the vent hood and the whole place had to be aired out and shut down. It was a nightmare, you'd think the whole, don't press that button warning would have meant something. Dude has to grow his own arm back though, so I didn't punish him.

So I left and came home to work on this op, but my eyes got tired so I set everything to print out, took a nap, and I've been pouring over the stuff since." She glanced at her watch. "It's been about four hours now and I still can't figure out how to get that shit shut down."

She snuggled against him. He was becoming more and more confident in his own body and acquiring some natural grace in the process, so the little maneuver impressed her just a little. She wanted to let him know with out saying anything, so she made herself comfortable, letting him hold up her slight weight.

Shaking his head, Alec quipped

"Well, you know how it goes. That whole testing of boundaries thing and some folks needing to learn from their own mistakes instead of the words of those that have survived longer. I bet he won't push any more buttons, though."

At her declaration of being stumped, Alec smiled. It was nice to be able to contribute sometimes to her work. Generally, she was so good that he felt his contributions were insignificant. Of course, the intangibles he provided were priceless, but it was still nice to be able to point to something specific from time to time.

"That's the trick...for these multi-layered jobs, they frequently don't insulate for over-propagation of signal. If you leave the power on and bridge between the hookup on the primary alarm's b6 output there in the top corner on the top page to the left and the receptor in the tertiary power supply...um...I think it was right under the pages you dropped, you'll see it...anyway, the surge feedback won't register as an alarm but as a systems error. It'll shut down for diagnostics on the primary system which'll kick in the secondary system, but there'll be a lag due to the feedback. Best case scenario is that you get a thirty second window of free movement, worst case...hm...probably eight seconds. Depends on the quality of their diagnostic system. The nice thing is with both the primary and tertiary systems cross feeding like that is that during the first window you can shut down the secondary system completely and leave it off until you disconnect the linkage. Since the other systems are busy, they won't notice until the glitch is gone. As long as you only move during those windows and remember to plug everything back in on the secondary system before disconnecting the loop, you've got it made in the shade."

Smiling into her shoulder, he wondered at the evolution of security. There were so many people so worried about keeping places and things secure...but then they installed things like windows, air ducts, multiple exits...put up signs saying that secrets or valuables were there. If you believed in the whole Garden of Eden deal, you knew that the whole 'No Trespassing' thing just didn't work. Advertise a secret and people wanted to know...or at least guess. The best way to hide something was to put it in plain sight and leave nothing to announce it and nothing obvious to watch it. Then no one would wonder why it was hidden. Without the aspect of curiosity, people wouldn't care to look.

"How long does it take to grow an arm, anyway?"

Ginnie listened carefully to what he said and made mental note of it. That secondary system was what had been bugging her. She was glad to have someone else put it into perspective for her.

"Thank you. That will work perfectly." She nudged the papers with her toes into a better stack and laughed out loud at his question.

"I have no idea. I've never had to grow a limb back. He's in the clinic if you want to visit him. It was really gross looking. Though the splatter on the walls was cool."

Feeling a need to kiss him, she leaned her head back and to the side, he automatically bent his head and their lips met. She smiled as they both pulled away and straightened. Miles Davis moved into Aerosmith, not exactly the best pairing, but she'd been in the mood for something heavy, and "Alone" filled the air around them.

Smiling, he nodded slightly.

"No problem. Happy to be of use."

Chuckling to the answer to the regeneration question, he joked

"I might check that out...maybe make it into a field trip for the trainees. 'See, this is what happens when you don't follow directions. Now, we'll be monitoring the healing progress over our time here...'. Ok, maybe that's a bad idea."

Bending into her kiss seemed to just fit the needs of their posture...it was the most natural thing in the world. Smiling distractedly, Alec held the position for a moment afterward, savoring the feel of the light coating of her saliva absorbing into his lips. With a contented sigh, he attempted to lean back onto his elbows, and missed. It seemed that he'd kept his arms around her. The nice thing about little mistakes like that was that he could play them off - releasing his hold, he laid back and stretched his arms out, thumping down softly. Wriggling away from her on his shoulders, he stood up in his somewhat boneless, arching way and walked into the kitchen. Getting himself a glass of water, he asked

"Want anything?"

Ginnie smiled at his question. It was nice to have someone think of her needs. She quickly assessed her body, the Hunger was sated, her mouth wasn't dry, there was a small patch of moisture on her panties, and her foot was asleep. Rolling it in a circle she called out.

"No thanks, I'm good."

She stood and gave the offending foot a few stomps and the pins and needles stopped. Bending at the waist, she pushed put all of the papers into a pile. She spoke as she worked.

"You never told me what you found at the Hillman compound. One of my assistants asked about it today, before the explosion." She rolled her eyes at that mishap again, and placed the papers on the table.

Having filled his glass with water, Alec turned the faucet off and took a sip. Then he looked down. Ginnie'd made a statement, and now the glass was in shards on the floor and he felt a little queasy. How unfortunate.

"Merde."

Reaching down, he began picking up the shards and wiping up the floor.

"Sorry, what was that?"

At least kneeling, out of sight, he was prepared when she repeated herself. This was the last thing in the world he'd want to talk with her about, as it divided his loyalties. He felt that she deserved to know, but promised Simon that he'd keep his mouth shut. 'See what being honest does for you, boy? Gets you inna tight spot.' He wasn't sure where the inner voice had come from, but he couldn't fault this train of thought.

Standing, he grabbed another glass, filled it with ice and water, and returned to the living room. There was an odd jingling sound. Hm. Putting the glass down on the coffee table so it wouldn't be quite so obvious and sat down on the couch. Thinking a moment, he sighed, then replied.

"I did a bit of research...grabbed some surveillance feeds, police reports, medical records, destroyed some leftover evidence of activity at the site...mostly business as usual, but beyond that Simon has asked me not to say any more until certain measures are in place."

Despite the fact that he'd kept his voice even and mellow, his jaw was tense and he was popping his knuckles to ease the frustration he was feeling. He wasn't aware of it, but he looked like he'd bit into a sour apple as well. So much for subterfuge.

Ginnie turned to look at Alec. He looked scared to death. What in the world could he have found, that Simon needed kept quiet, that would make him look like the Grim Reaper himself was visiting. A wild idea started to formulate, but Ginnie squashed it, because it wasn't possible, she'd heard everything go down, so there was no sense in being stupid.

She crossed the room and placed a gentle hand on Alec's cheek. "Oh, sweety, I'm sorry. I won't ask anything else, even though I'm dying to pick and pry and weedle it out of you. If Simon says to remain mum, I will not undermine his orders."

Stepping close she kissed him, coaxing his lips apart with her tongue, more to wipe the haunted look from his face than for comfort or lust.

Shocked a bit at her compassion...not for the fact that it was there, but that he'd felt he'd done a fine job hiding what he'd really been feeling. Hell, maybe he HAD, and the leftovers that might have trickled through his normally collected visage still proclaimed the reality of things for her to see. Greedily, he returned her kiss, but ended it a bit quickly. He held her to him...perhaps tighter than usual. Perhaps a little longer than usual. Perhaps he was just over-processing again.

"Thanks. I'm probably just being paranoid, as usual. But I guess that's what people pay me for. Well, other than the creative acquisition and redistribution of wealth."

Sinking farther into the couch, he spread his arms again. Well...that was a strange and vaguely unsettling roller coaster. Changing his mind, he stretched, drank some water...and THEN settled back into the couch. That'd show the world.

Ginnie watched him with her head tilted to one side. He seemed vaguely disturbed by that brief give and take and she worried for him, probably needlessly. She wondered again at what Simon was making him hide and tried not to dwell on it. Instead she changed her mind on needing a drink and walked into the kitchen. She pulled a half full bottle of red wine out of the fridge, and poured some into two glasses, corked it and put it back into the fridge.

Back in the living room she handed Alec a glass and folded herself onto the couch next to him, so that her shoulder was against the couch and her shin lay along side his thigh. She sipped from the rich red-black liquid, that was rather redolent of blood in appearance, contemplating her next words. There were a lot of things they should discuss, but she didn't know which she wanted to bring up first and of course there were a few she'd just rather not talk about at all.

"How in the world did human politics land you on the feeding habits of catfish?"

It was an innocuous subject and one she really actually wanted the answer to.

Confused for a moment, he recalled then his arrival home...had that really been this evening? Felt like a different night all of a sudden. Grinning sheepishly, he ran his hand through his hair.

"Well, y'know...human politics, human consumption, feelings of the consumed, human feelings for what they consume, the consumed's feelings, the consumed's feelings on what it consumes."

Chuckling, he stuck the tip of his tongue out slightly.

"I mean, isn't it obvious? Sheesh!"

Putting his wine down without tasting it, he pivoted his back toward her and plopped his head into her lap, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch.

"Sometimes questions just set off my curiosity about other people's perspectives. I guess it doesn't always stop at people, but moves on to humans and animals, too. Or maybe my cracks are showing a bit."

Shaking his head, he banished the negative thoughts from earlier. It was easy when looking up at her. Even upside down he was still the luckiest kid on the planet. He grinned at the thought of considering himself a kid...and then even more at the thought that in the grander scheme of his people, he really was. Funny how perceptions and roles can change, moment to moment.

Ginnie shook her head and chuckled. His thought processes never ceased to amaze her. It would never occur to her to wonder about how food felt about being eaten. In her experience they enjoyed it very much, or were too dead to know better.

"Well, slick, I guess it just goes to show you are very odd."

Laughing she bent over him and kissed his lips briefly. Straightening she let the fingers of her free hand get lost in his hair. Now that they were both in a better mood she felt she could move on to other more interesting subjects.

"How has the hand to hand training been going? I wanted to observe today and see if I could take one of those big roughies down."

Giving his winningest smile, he beamed up at her.

"Only because you kiss me when I'm odd. With that kind of encouragement, you can hardly expect me to stop, ma coeur."

Savoring the feel of her long fingers in his messy hair, he nodded slightly at the next question. He figured she'd ask since she'd missed observing the crew today.

"Actually, good and bad. Mendoza was feeling a bit gutsy after beating Heyn yesterday, so she started with Williams. He didn't have Heyn's hesitancy with hitting women, and broke her nose and orbit with one of those big elbows that he's fond of. She moved right into it and BAM! Out like a light. I think she'll stop over-committing to an attack now, and keep her balance a bit tighter. Heyn felt like shit about it since he hasn't been training on her hard enough, which was good. I didn't even have to grill him about it. Larson took quite a beating from Lau, but she held up pretty well for a human. Heyn took his frustrations out on Wallace - was surprised at the level of violence that he managed to channel. Wallace was too, apparently, because he was on the retreat for almost half a minute before he was collected enough to counterattack. But he's definitely not a natural. Ludmer fell for Bianchi's choke trick again...but he's got it figured out. I'm betting next time it doesn't end that way. So, good and bad. Some progress. Some hard lessons, but they seem to be getting closer to each other, which is good."

Ginnie nodded along with his commentary, she'd noticed some of the weaknesses he described, and was a bit surprised by Heyn's violence. She had had her doubts about him, since he deemed disinclined to actually inflict harm to his team mates.

"Are you going to start multiples against one soon, or do you want them more proficient in one-on-one first? The women especially need to know how to get out of a tight spot with multiple male attackers. It's sadly something they will have to deal with much to often. Also I wanted to work with any telekinetics and/or gliders you have, it's useful in our line of work and difficult to get a firm handle on with out training or a good hundred years."

Her cheeks pinkened slightly. It was still a bit embarrassing to admit it took her that long to figure out the telekinesis, though the glamour had been ridiculously easy for her, maybe that was just a woman thing. "These days waiting a hundred years to perfect a skill will get you killed."

Considering a moment, Alec ran his tongue along a fang.

"I should probably find someone else to teach them the multiple attackers portion. There are a ton of folks who're better with it than I am. Maybe we'll move to improvisational weapons and ambushing before we do multiple opponents. Lau and Abdelhalek are the telekinetics, and there aren't any gliders in this crop, actually."

Smiling up at her rosy cheeks, Alec decided to share.

"Is the pretty lady a little self conscious about the learning curve? Well, don't be. I figured out I could blend by getting hit by an old woman driving a Cadillac. Took a couple more close calls before I realized what I was doing and why I was doing it unconsciously. At least your learning curve didn't involve broken bones."

Ginnie smiled down at him. "I never said that. What I will say is that healing broken bones is a bitch."

She tilted her head to one side and thought a moment about the training aspect of their conversation.

"I'm not sure, but I think Mathias would be a good person to bring in for multi-opponent training. I can help with ambush training, as well as improve weapons, though I'm not the best at that. I like my pre-fab stuff, thank you very much."

She considered the new kinetic recruits as well. She'd seen them in action and wasn't entirely sure that the ability would be an asset for either of them, but it was their job as trainers to give the Mercs as much advantage as possible and even a rudimentary grasp of telekinetics could be the difference in life and death.

Chuckling, Alec nodded slightly.

"Yeah, sweatervest'd be a good multi-opponent trainer. He'd be good at the improvised weapons, too. I'm toying with the idea of having a field trip to the House of Pain and starting a bar fight for the hands on portion of both of those. I'm sure Mathias'd be happy to chaperon that trip."

Face going blank, Alec cocked his head to the side for a second.

"Huh. I wonder if Simon wants to help with any of the trainings. It'd be good to get some extra exposure to the new troops in case something goes down. He's just got so much on his plate. Maybe I'll ask him."

"Sweatervest? You call him that?" Ginnie chuckled. "I like that better than Mat. Which I don't call him to his face." She winked, and sipped her wine.

"Well the only thing you can do is ask. The worst he can do is say no."

She let her fingers move through his hair in a gentle rhythm. He felt so perfect there on her thigh, and she wondered what the hell had been the matter with her recently. Sighing inwardly once more, she sipped her wine again.

"Do you think hurtling things at Lau and Abdelhalek will be a good training exercise. Kind of like throwing a kid into the water to teach them to swim."