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 Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:33 pm
How could a person live off of junk? Chips, soda, sugary sweets..... It could leave you in a mild stupor of shame and regret. But Cal only felt the empty calories give her a slight buzz of familiar happiness as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. She had removed her bandages, revealing a healing gash with a few stitches holding it in place. She reached up to touch it, wincing at the tender sore. She lifted herself from the bed with little enthusiasm to venture out into the world. Or as far as the kitchen was, to eat some more junk food and replenish her stash.
There weren't any snacks that she was interested in, so she decided to make something. Cookies seemed like the best bet. It shouldn't be hard to make. It wasn't long before the kitchen was a mess. Her motions were slow as she struggled to not knock things over in the new blind spot hindering her vision. It was infuriating! She knocked the flour down twice and the pans and-!! She growled out a frustrated whine, placing a hand on her forehead and grazing her wound. She scrunched up, crouching down close to the ground in a sulking heap.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:49 pm
It was a familiar setting. Lucas, hungry for something the cafeteria inevitably couldn't offer, wandered into the kitchen to some unholy scene. But this time, instead of a small woman seated at a table shouting out types of cookies (or was it names of scientists?), the preparation area was covered in a film of flour, pots were strewn every which way, and a girl was crouched on the floor as if she had perhaps dropped a large number of something tiny. This theory was refuted by the unmistakable hiss of pain that accompanied her posture, and Lucas's inherent good nature moved him forward almost without him being aware of the movement himself. A moment later, he was crouching beside her, a hesitant hand hovering near her form as if to steady her through proximity alone.
"Hey, are you all right?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:15 pm
With a jolt, she fell down in the flour and disturbed a few of the pans. Her eyes stared wide at the unknown man that had crouched beside her, before her features hardened. "I'm fine." She sat in the flour as if she had meant to make this mess; As if she had meant to fall flat on her rear end into the flour. "I was just having a fight with the flour...." She brushed her hair into her face, this time minding the sore peeking through. Cal smudged flour under a slightly watery eye before looking down at her hands. She sighed at the white powder that decorated her hands, the floor, and now her face. All this for some cookies. She laughed quietly to herself, placing a palm in the powder.
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:37 pm
Lucas met the girl's bewildered gaze, his attention unintentionally drawn to her wound. There was something terribly familiar about it, something that caused a dull phantom pain to rise in his own scar. And then she spoke, and he watched as she fiddled with her hair and smeared flour on her face. "I, uhh... I think the flour might have won this round," he replied. A friendly, sympathetic smile was pulled into a frown in response to her quiet laughter, but it resurfaced moments later. He stood and stretched, then offered a hand to help her up.
"Hey, how about I make something?" Pride widened his gentle smile into a grin. "I make some pretty good cookies."
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:56 pm
She grasped his hand with her flour covered one, lifting herself up on shaky feet. Her sides had become sore with the strain. Cal gave him a small forced smile. She took a good look at the man, noticing the scar on his face. Maybe his vision was impaired like her vision? She shrugged off these idle thoughts, brushing the flour from her pants. She found a towel to wipe her face of the floury marks on her face. "You could help me if you'd like." Her eyes scanned over the mess. "I wouldn't want you to do unnecessary things...." Her voice trailed off into a whisper as she looked down at her twiddling fingers.
"I'm Cal." She finally said, looking back to the man, face plain, "I haven't seen you around too much." Though she hadn't been out in a while. "Do you always go around helping the less fortunate?" A slight smile cracked her features as she began to clean some of the flower from the counter.
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:31 am
"It's no trouble for me," he assured, "but I'm good with helping... if you don't mind my company." Lucas rubbed at his neck absently. He wasn't completely convinced that this girl was really as fine as she said she was. Judging from her movements, it seemed that she had been injured recently, but how recently and how badly injured were beyond his range of perception. He toyed with the idea of encouraging her to visit the infirmary but decided there would be no need for it if he watched over her properly.
"Pleasure to meet ya, Cal." His bright grin returned in full. "Name's Lucas. I, uh... don't get out a whole lot." His admission was accompanied by an embarrassed chuckle. Lately it seemed as though he spent all his free time in his room. Not exactly behavior that could be called conducive to a team environment...
"Well jeez, if you put it that way, it makes me sound like some kind of busybody," he laughed. He moved to help clear away the flour, quieted by the fact that he could think of no way to explain it that didn't make him sound like a busybody.
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:17 pm
"It's nice to meet you Lucas." She gave him a half-hearted smile as she finished wiping own the counter top. She knocked bumped her hand into the napkin stand absentmindedly, turning to catch it before it could make too much of a commotion. Cal sat it back on the counter. She sighed, "It seems I've become very clumsy."
Her eyes scanned the counter warily, trying to remember where everything was placed and their approximate distance. Not being able to see out of one eye was frustrating and a hard to get used to- for Cal at least. She held a hand thoughtfully in front of her eye. Still there was nothing registering. She dismissed her thoughts as Lucas joined her in her cleaning efforts. "I've been a shut in for a while, company would be nice." She laughed a bit, wiping flour from her face.
Her laughter increased slightly as she waited for the man to finish. "So that means you are a busybody then?" A smirk planted onto her face.
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:52 pm
"Likewise," he said with a nod, instinctively moving when he saw the napkin stand topple even though was nowhere near close enough to catch it. Fortunately Cal seemed to have it under control. He raised a brow in vague curiosity, "Not at your usual best, then?" Not surprising, if his previous appraisal was an accurate one.
Lucas noticed the strange way she regarded the counter and her own hand. He was starting to get a pretty good idea of what the problem was. It was a problem that he himself was all too familiar with, but he chose not to comment on it.
"Oh, Cal, your accusations wound me! True though they may be." He flashed a broad grin. He was always happy to be able to turn frustration to laughter, even at his own expense.
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Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:02 pm
Her smirk turned into an awkward smile. "I don't know if I'll ever be at my usual best." She brought the bowl to her, taking the flour and other cookie baking essentials. She looked over each one of them carefully, noting their place and getting a feel of the space she had to deal with. Cal didn't want another mess in the kitchen.
"I guess we can get started." She took a napkin and lifted up the hair covering eye, gently wiping a bit of flour from around the stitched area. Her eye appeared discolored and lighter in the outer iris. "Or maybe I can watch you cook for a while." She smiled, not wanting to get in his way.
She looked the man over once more, curiosity peaking. "May I be so bold," she asked, leaning on the counter opposite of him, and dabbing the wound with the napkin, "To ask what happened to your eye?" Maybe his vision was impaired like hers. Maybe he could help her adjust to this sudden loss in eyesight.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:39 pm
His first thought was to assure her otherwise, but he quickly thought better of it. What kind of assurances could he make knowing nothing of the situation? Empty sentiments could often prove more detrimental than no sentiments at all, and so he kept his mouth shut on the matter.
"Ah, sure, if that's what you want," he agreed, eying the assorted supplies. "What kind of cookies were you looking to make?"
His train of thought, however, was completely derailed by her sudden question, and his hand instinctively rose to the long scar that carved its trail from his brow to his chin. Her hair drawn aside as it was, it was clear to see why she was asking.
"Hmm, I guess this was from a mission that went poorly," he said. He wasn't averse to explaining, but the fact that he didn't know the story himself made it hard to tell. "I wasn't paying proper attention, and I took a blow."
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 2:31 pm
Cal had made up her mind about the cookies long before this fellow had come along. "Let's keep it simple with chocolate chip cookies." It was what she craved, and they were not too hard to make. "But if you want to change it up, you can." Since he was now in on the cookie making, he had a say in to too.
She let her hair fall back in to place now as Lucas told her what happened. It sounded similar to her incident and intriguing, though he didn't say too much about it. She decided it would be fair to share her own experience. "That sounds a lot like what happened to me..." She hadn't talked to anyone other than the people on the mission about it. "On the last mission, there was a big explosion and I got this nice scar here." She smiled, still sad about the face that she was blind in that eye. "And now my vision is impaired. I can't see a thing out of this thing." Tears began to trickle slowly from the corners of her eyes. She turned away to pretend to busy herself while she dried her eyes.
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:36 pm
"All right, I can do chocolate chip." He knew a chocolate chip cookie recipe, right? Of course he did. This would go splendidly, without a doubt. And if not, Cal was there to slap his wrist away from wrong-doings. On this thought, he began sorting through the ingredients, making sure everything was there and doing a mention run-through the their place in the recipe.
His expression fell at her explanation. He had already figured it out from the hints, but somehow hearing the actual words was another level of disheartening. He frowned, breathing out a quiet sigh. "It's scary, huh? I wasn't much older than you when I lost my sight. It's like living in a completely different world..." He turned to her, reaching a hand to set on her shoulder. "Don't worry. It's a lot easier to adjust than you might think. Give it a few weeks and you'll be right back at the top of your game." He had been surprised himself with how quickly all things had returned to normality, facing little to no difficulty in all of his daily life in less than a year.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:06 pm
Cal had someone who related to her problem, but she didn't wish for sympathy. She'd much rather lock herself in her room to deal with her troubles, as she had done in the past. That's how she got over everything- alone. By herself. But she couldn't help but let the faint sobs catch her breath. She flinched at his touch. "Yeah... It's scary." It was a sickening feeling, her tears rolled down her ashen cheeks as she turned to Lucas. "D-do you really think so?" Her voice was choked by the hiccups that caught her.
The young agent's hand tried to swipe away the flow of tears, but the feeling of hopelessness kept them going. She pried her hands from her face reached out to towards the man for comfort. This scene seemed all too familiar. That just made her cry even more. Her mind was reeling and she didn't know what to do.
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:53 am
As much as Lucas disagreed with the idea of any more contact that a handshake towards coworkers, he certainly wasn't one to watch a girl cry and offer no assurance. He set his arms around her shoulders, standing as a silent sentinel. He'd been frightened himself to suddenly wake up in an infirmary with gauze bound around his eye. He had been frustrated beyond all limits on so many occasions, and there had been days when it was all he could do to keep from hurting himself in fits of violence against inanimate objects. They were bitter memories; if there was anything he could do to keep Cal from feeling the same as he did, damned if he wasn't going to do it.
"Don't worry," he repeated. It was impossible not to worry, and he knew that, but that empty solace was all he could offer. Cal would have to see for herself that she could overcome it.
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:24 pm
Caught up in the moment, it took Cal a few minutes to realized that she had hugged Lucas. She pulled away from him slightly, startled by her own actions. She had just met the man and she was already clinging to him. She paused, trying to compose herself. On top of everything, she was embarrassed and upset with her plea for comfort.
"I'm so sorry!" Tears still stung her eyes. She ran her hands through her hair nervously trying not to make eye contact with Lucas. If only she could disappear. If only she could go back in time! Though if that were the case, she wouldn't have had that injury. Her hands found themselves on her elbows in a makeshift hug, her nails digging into her skin subconsciously. "I'm really sorry." Her words an almost inaudible whisper.
With a shaking breath she tried to calm down. The first impression she gave Lucas would probably scare him away. The headquarters didn't need another mentally unstable person running amok. Cal focused her energy on getting them onto a different subject. With the faintest of sobs still caught in her throat, she diverged to another topic. Any topic. "Could you tell me more about your accident?" It was an odd question, but anything to distract him while she dried her tears.
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