1.5-Terrible Life Choices(And Other Las Vegas Attractions)-F

[Deleted]

Over the comm line, Wash crowed.

"Thanks, Blue!" he said. "Hang on a sec, I'll be right there, just... try not to move too much!"

True to his word, a moment later the other Autobot appeared.

Instantly.

Inside Bluestreak's cab.

Over in the passenger's seat, the pale-haired avatar beat his hands against the dash in a mixture of frustration and exultation.

"I'm such an idiot!" he said. "I am too foolish to exist! I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier! I could have spared Rook and I a hell of a lot of aggravation back when - I'm a twit!"

Without bothering to explain Wash rolled down the window and breathlessly looked out of it, at the black car still pursuing at Bluestreak's heels. The airflow whipped his pale hair about madly until he pulled his head back inside and rested his arm on the frame.

"Bluestreak!" he said. "If I get the car behind us, can you take out the one just ahead? I don't care how you do it - nudge them off the road of you have to. We're in a nest of tails, and these two are only the obvious ones meant to sucker us out into the open. But if we can throw them and get down a side street, a subdivision, anything - I think we have a shot of shaking them. Can you get that car off the road?"

[Bluestreak]

Try not to move too much? What the heck is that supposed to mean? Wait a second, well, uh, let's hope he's a pretty good shot or something maybe he's going to take out one of their tires and send them flipping into the other lane, wait no, no that's every buddy action film, my bad. Because in those it's a lot of explosions and everyone walks away, but not so much in reality.

When someone simply appeared in his front seat and whacked on his dashboard, Bluestreak had that flailing panic moment that somehow the guy in the black car next to him had leapt out of his window, somehow ninja kicked a hole in Bluestreak himself, and now was about ready to wrestle him for the wheel. The Datsun nearly leapt off the road as if it had hit a pothole, all four tires spinning before they cracked back down on the blacktop.

Bluestreak's avatar gawped. His jaw was open, blue eyes wide. His hands flew off the wheel and he simply did a double take and looked utterly caught out.

"Oh!" he half laughed, half gasped once he realized what was going on. "Wash! Hi! Wait, what what are you thinking of, wait, why did you what are you talking about, wait, wait, yeah, I can totally take out the one ahead of us, I was just getting ready to give him a whack in the bumper, yep, and give this girl a chance to get the heck out of here, wait, why am I still talking about it, hang on, hands inside the vehicle at all times while we play bumper car!"

"You know, right now I'm totally thinking once again that I should have scanned a big old SUV or a Nissan Titan, whoops," he grimaced. "Eh, here goes nothing - hah, well, except maybe my pristine hood."

With that, Bluestreak glanced over and the avatar's jaw set. His blue eyes narrowed; the wheel turned under his hand without him ever moving. The Datsun's engine revved and then with a fluid swerve that took him easily between the lines, he tapped his brakes just enough to slide into the other lane. He splayed his tires, ducking as flat as possible before he lunged forward and attempted to jam his bumper under that of the Crown Victoria on the left hand corner.

If he managed to do that, he'd engage the tires and just shove as hard as he could away from the girl on her scooter. A retaining wall, a curb, a fire hydrant, anything would do to knock this one permanently off the road.

Gotta time the brakes well, can't swerve out until the last second, can't give them a chance to recover!

[Deleted]

Wash's reserved looking avatar laughed as Bluestreak veered across the lines. He smacked his hands on the dash, his expression gleefully demented.

"Yes, get him, Blue!" he said. "Get that scrap-sucker!"

The Crown Victoria faltered slightly when he swapped lanes, as if the driver had been taken aback by Bluestreak's sudden change in tactics. The Datsun would be able to nudge his bumper neatly under that of the Victoria, securing a firm hold over the other vehicle.

Not to mention it's steering.

The instant he shoved, the Victoria swerved. It's front end swung outwards as its back end was thrust hard in the other direction. The brakes screeched and black marks were burnt into the pavement as its front tires weaved frantically. The driver yanked on the wheel, trying to get the car back under his own control.

All three cars were speeding past a gas station, next to which was an intersection and then a dusty old motel. With its tires squealing the Crown Victoria bumped off the road and over the shoulder. The jolt was enough to loosen it from Bluestreak's hold, but that was where its luck ended. Carrying sideways by momentum, it continued to slide in a cloud of dust into the motel parking lot, where it rammed diagonally into curb. The front tires rocked over the concrete divider and its undercarriage scraped against it, bringing the car abruptly rocking to a halt.

Inside Bluestreak's cab, Wash cackled.

"That's one down!" he said. "All right, now it's my turn. I'm coming for you, you son of a bitch!"

Without further word, the avatar scrambled out Bluestreak's open passenger side window.

He clambered on the roof of the Datsun and stood bent, buffeted by wind. Calmly he sized up the gap between Bluestreak and the black Victoria that was still in pursuit. Then he broke into a sprint.

Two steps carried him down onto the trunk, where he kicked into the air. A second later the frail looking avatar smashed feet first into the Victoria's windshield.

Through the broken glass it would be hard to make out what happened next. There were signs of a struggle. The Victoria swerved wildly back and forth, then all at once swung hard to the right. Like the first car it roared off the side of the road and over the shoulder, where it finally careened into the construction lot set up outside of a small post office. It hit a deep trench and fell nose first into it, sending a giant cloud of dust exploding into the air.

The girl on the scooter had shoved up her visor to watch it all. Her mouth was open in a wide 'O' of astonishment as she stared at Bluestreak's avatar.

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak's avatar was hunched over the wheel as his bumper clicked under that of the Crown Victoria. His eyes were narrowed; and for a second there was utterly serious concentration that flickered across his face. The Datsun's engine snarled out a high-pitched rumble as he lunged forward; Bluestreak's rear tires chattered and smoked against the hot pavement. Yellow lines blurred and streaked past his nose and he just shoved the other car as hard as he could.

It did it, it hit the curb; it slid out of control and he tapped on the brakes at the last second possible and splayed his front tires to help shake the black vehicle loose. There was the chattering scrape of metal on metal as he whipped free and sped onwards only to suddenly recognize that Wash's avatar was standing on his roof like a freaking surfer. Right down to the awesome shirt, right before he...

Wow.

Bluestreak was speechless.

For exactly a second. Maybe half of one. Okay, nope, a whole full second.

"Primus on a- on uh, on, some sort of something!" Bluestreak whistled in awe.

Then he just exploded into words, one tumbling after the next. "Wash, that was freaking amazing, wow, did you just cannonball into - hahaha, you did, you totally did, wow holy heck that was amazing, surf's up and I'm talking up right upside their heads, haha, take that, two down, two totally down, bet you didn't see that coming, you jerks, you guys none, us a whole heck of a lot that was beautiful, Wash, just totally beautiful I wish I could have recorded that that was amazing, that was freaking awesome-- wait, how DID you do that, no, never mind, it's probably some secret agent thing that you have to kill me for after you tell me, forget it, never mind, but man that was just--"

A whoop of laughter purled out of Bluestreak as he threw up a fist in the air with a wild cheer even as he spun his rear tires around and snapped himself into place besides the girl, blocking her bike and her frame with his flank. She was staring at him, wide-eyed.

Bluestreak stopped shy of thumping his hand on the dash and then grinned sheepishly over at her. He brought up his avatar's hand to ruffle through his short sandy hair, like he would have rubbed at his brow as a mech.

"Hi," he called out his open window to her. "You okay? Come on, we gotta get you somewhere out of here, I dunno where the rest of these creeps are. Is your bike okay? Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

[Deleted]

The girl gawped at him. Her blue eyes were wide.

"Yes, I - I'm fine," she stammered. "I'm okay, my bike is - oh, shit!"

She looked back wildly. Sure enough several cars on the road were already beginning to pull off onto the shoulder in alarm. Already one man had his cell phone out. Predictably, he was taking a picture of the Victoria that was hung up in the motel parking lot rather than actually dialling for help.

The girl covered her mouth.

"Oh!" she said. "Oh! Just - follow me! I know somewhere we can go, we can - talk there! Just - follow me!"

She gunned the engine of her scooter and roared ahead of Bluestreak. Well, puttered ahead.

Wash meanwhile was laughing over the comm line like a psychopath.

"I'm okay!" he said. "I can't believe I never thought of doing this before. You should have seen what I did to the other tail. Ha! Anyway, my guy here is emphatically unconscious behind the wheel, Bluestreak. No regrets! But you'd better get out of here sharpish. I'll go and do my best to delay the police before they inevitably arrive on the scene. I'll meet you somewhere safe, just send me coordinates when you get there!"

[Bluestreak]

"Your bike is--" Bluestreak echoed, looking down at the tiny red scooter. He half expected to see the engine smoking before he realized what she was swearing about instead. The cars were pulling over, the cell phone, whoops, uh, he'd kind of forgotten about that until she pointed it out. The Datsun craned up on his tires just a tad bit, even as his avatar leaned out the window and shaded his eyes a bit to see exactly what was going on behind them.

"Oh, oh, oh, right, right, audience and stuff and audience and well, stuff..." he agreed. "Wow, I bet that picture's ending up on social media. What not to do with your Crown Victoria in Vegas, er, sorry, right - come on, let's get you out of here before they- oh, you do? Awesome, lead on, lead on..."

She could be part of this, a little voice warned him.

I don't think so, she was pretty darn scared and they would have eased up on her a bit. She's only wearing the helmet, not a vest, if she'd fallen in traffic, she'd be dead. If these guys do that sort of thing to their own people, ugh... well, seen it before, but it still makes my relays crawl.

Bluestreak made a snap decision there on the spot and turned his tires towards her.

"Wash? I'm going to go with her, don't want them chasing her down after all this, I'm thinking she might be able to tell us what's going on and why they were after her and even if she doesn't know it's okay, I just want to make sure she gets out safely. No regrets, nope! Also, I want to hear about what you did to the other tail later, for sure, but okay, be careful, do your best to delay but don't get caught if there's more of them out here and okay, will do, sending you coordinates when I get there. If there's a problem, I can get out of it okay. If I start screaming, well, I didn't, ahha. Nah, it'll be fine, I'm sure."

"Be careful!" he called, and laughed back. "Nah, I don't have to tell you that either!"

"Right," he replied to the girl and he immediately cut behind her as she zoomed forward, following close enough to run blocker again if they ran into trouble. "Following, let's get out of here. Talking sounds good, it's great, it's wonderful."

[Deleted]

The little red scooter buzzed along as the girl led him through the light traffic and into the southeast quarter of Las Vegas. Luckily it's low speed would allow Bluestreak to follow her with ease, his own powerful engine barely strained by the effort. She had clapped her visor back down and rode tensely, both hands tightly gripped over the handlebars.

Just shy of the 515 she veered off down a side street and into an area of dense suburban sprawl. Rows and rows of neat houses sat on primly kept green lawns, street after street of them, their tidy fences hiding beautiful blue swimming pools from prying eyes. Cars and minivans sat parked on asphalt driveways and sprinklers waved cheerily over the grass, shaded by leaf and palm trees. The sound of traffic and lawnmowers droned in the distance.

The girl rode the winding avenues slowly, leaning slightly into the turns. Eventually she turned down a small crescent and bumped up onto a small driveway. The house she had pulled up to was a nice one, a beige little two-story with stucco walls and a red tile roof. A modest garden sat beneath the front windows, just a few flowering bushes.

The garage door obediently rolled open, revealing an empty two car garage. Several old cardboard boxes sat piled in a corner, next to a small lawnmower and some pails. A row of rakes and shovels hung from pegs on the wall, along with loops of extension cords. There was workbench against the far wall, with red toolboxes lined up on it.

With one last sputter the scooter drove into one side of the garage, where the girl shut it down and leaned it on its kickstand. She tugged off her helmet, revealing a mass of sweaty blonde hair, and quickly turned around to wave Bluestreak inside.

"In here, in here!" she said.

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak kept close to the girl and her scooter; that poor machine was just about done. It sounded a little rough. The girl didn't seem much better, bent low and tense. He stayed close to her, throwing out a scanner and a sharp eye to focus on the other cars around them. If they came at her again, he was ready; fine, he'd run them all off the road and then uh... well, then Wash would have a lot more cleanup to do, and yeah, try another plan Beanpole. Haha, he kinda liked that one.

When they hit the residential areas without an issue, Bluestreak still remained wary and guarded. Residential. One of those places that they were recommended to go to as little as possible lately, with MECH on their tails it made it even worse. Another flicker of his scanner. Were they still clear? He been noting where he was in the street grid, making sure he knew where he was in the city and how the fastest way would be to get to open road the moment they'd moved towards the five fifteen.

He also gave a momentary gulp of thanks that she chose not to turn and go onto the overpass.

It wasn't that high, it wasn't, he'd handle it... maybe.

When they came to that little house in the residential area, he hesitated for the first time. His tires caught the edge of the driveway and he glanced around himself again. His avatar frowned slightly and eyed the garage. Empty, with cardboard boxes. Lawnmower, pails, yeah, those seemed like the most logical things to find in a garage at least. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He flicked a scanner out again to survey the area, and flattened down on his tires as he rolled up the drive.

"Hey, Wash," he murmured over their connection, before he quietly pinged coordinates. "Just letting you know where I am in case uh, this ends up being something not quite above the board, but..."

If he had to, if it was bad, take down the garage door. He knew the way back to the open roads.

Here goes nothing. Something. Oh boy. I hope she hasn't gone back to her parents. Oh boy, yeah, that's going to go over really well, erk. He didn't think that anything he could say about the situation would sound good. Hi, I was chasing these guys chasing your daughter and she invited me back afterwards. Hi, I totally was on your daughter's tail all the way back to this place, sorry about that, she said she knew a place. No, that... that didn't feel appropriate either. Ugh. What was he supposed to say? He could say a lot but most of the time it wasn't...

Great, where was Wash when he needed him, oh, that's right, cleaning up the mess they'd left down outside of Vegas.

"Right," he called to her, and drove into the garage after her. He idled his engine on the cool concrete and glanced around the space again. "You okay? You handled that bike better than I could have back there, for sure, wow. I probably would have set it right down when that guy crowded in the lane..."

[Deleted]

Wash's reply over the comm came with a small delay.

"Copy that, Blue," he said. He sounded a little breathless. "I'm just muddying things a bit here with the police. I'll handle this and be with you shortly. Thanks for the coordinates! Sounds like you're not too far off. Stay safe!"

The comm clicked off again.

Meanwhile, the girl sat astride her scooter and picked strands of hair from the padding of her helmet with one gloved hand. She laid it over one of the handlebars and swung off the seat. The scooter lurched as her weight was removed from it.

A little unsteadily, she walked around to Bluestreak's driver side window, unzipping her red jacket as she did so. Despite her sweaty hair she was rather pretty, with clear blue eyes and a slim build. She wore a blue collared shirt beneath her jacket and jeans, and brown ankle boots. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was held back from her face by a black headband.

"Thanks!" she said. She leaned over to look at his avatar through the window, her eyes alight. "But holy crap! Oh my god. Really, I should be the one praising you. You quartered that asshole right into that motel parking lot! That was amazing. Thank you so much. I seriously owe you one. Oh my god. Look at my hands! Still shaking."

She held up one gloved hand to show that it was indeed trembling. Then she laughed and pointed her thumb into the garage.

"Can I invite you inside for a drink or a bite to eat, or offer a place to lay low from police helicopters?" she said. "Okay, maybe kidding about the last one. My name's Carly. You are...?"

[Bluestreak]

At the response and click, Bluestreak sagged over his tires. The front end of the Datsun slumped a bit low to the cement floor of the garage. A soft tickatick of coolant surged through his systems; his engine turned to a low soft rattle and then he turned the roar of his engine to the soft whirr of settled mechanical parts. He watched the girl slide off of her much-abused vehicle, one leg swung over, and then she thunked on the shaded floor.

When she came to his drivers side window, he wasn't sure what to do. Uh. What did humans do. On TV they leapt out of the car and yelled freeze, but hey, that was all the cop shows. So he simply sat and looked up at her, leaning his avatar's elbow against the metal of his frame and used that moment to take her in from head to toe and then he realized that was probably rude, but he was fascinated.

He'd seen Miko. He'd seen the other kids. He'd seen a lot of humans. This was the first one though that was-- well, she was right off of his door and talking directly to him with eyes bright with excitement and a string of words that he could follow. She wasn't as young as he'd thought, either, his avatar seemed older to him, but not by much. He had a hard time telling age in humans but he was getting better about it.

Say something back. Say something back. Like, yeah, I whacked that guy off to the side .. I guess you could say he now has- dramatic pause - out of curb appeal. Oh ick, that's bad, okay, maybe- so what's the story? Giant alien hits car, there's your story. Er, nope, that's not going to fly, hey, but they sure did... argh, okay, stop talking in your head, stop talking in your head, oh wow, why am I not nervous leaving Wash behind after I helped throw his avatar through a window, but in the proximity of one human I forgot my outside words.

Okay, settle... you can do this, you need to find out why those guys were chasing her. It's okay, it's all right, humans are as scared of you as you are of them... wait, that's bears. Or lions. Or some sort of large carnivore.

Oh geeze, I've not said anything. I forgot how to say things. I never forget how to say things.

Say something, Bluestreak!!!

He tilted his head and looked up at her, then his avatar ducked his head. He lifted his hand up and then rubbed the side of his nose before offering her a tiny, shy smile.

"Hullo," he mumbled.

Well that's something stupid. Let's try that again.


"Oh, oh, geeze, I'm so sorry... Carly, right? Carly. Um, my name's Blue."

His mental self threw up his hands and stalked off. You're on your own, idiot. You better talk fast and think faster.

His avatar shifted in the seat and looked up at her. Her hands were shaking and suddenly he simply understood. Being scared was universal, and that, that he could understand. Oh. Well, hey, no kidding, he would have been terrified too if some random guys in black cars were chasing him - oh, wait, they were. However they didn't have what he'd had when-- haha, engage the Wash bomb! Okay, that had sounded better before he thought it all out. Oh well.

The car shifted its tires as if settling finally into place, like he'd engaged the parking brake.

"Ah, gah, let me try that again. Sorry. I think I'm still a bit rattled too. I thought they were going to knock you over in traffic and you'd get really hurt. I mean, I have a problem with big cars picking on scooters, it seems a totally unfair advantage, right there, but aw, no, no you don't have to praise me."

A grin sloped the corners of his mouth, and he brought up his hand to ruffle it through his avatar's hair again. "You would have out driven them if it hadn't been for that engine at the max you could take it, and you got stuck where you couldn't duck into a sidestreet," he laughed as he crossed his arms and leaned on the inside frame of the window before he pointed at the poor little resting scooter seemingly panting in a corner.

"Yeah, ooch, the police helicopters," he winced. "I dunno, you might not be too far off base with that mess, let's hope not, um... wait, is this your- house? Place? It's nice. I mean, the garage is nice, not that I've seen the rest of it, and---wow, I am just putting my foot in my mouth something amazing right now."

"So, yes. Hi, I'm Blue and laying low sounds like it might be really a good idea."

He paused. "Also, I guess I really should ask why were those guys chasing you through Vegas with intent to run you off the road?"

[Deleted]

Carly's face fell at the question. She winced, hissing softly through her teeth.

"Well, uh... if those were the guys I'm thinking of, then it's kind of a long story," she said. "Maybe you really should come in for a bit if you want the details. Come on, it's just this way."

She stepped back from the car, gesturing for him to follow. Her boot heels clicked on the spotless cement floor. She walked to a side door in the garage, one that presumably led into the house. "It's just through here! Yep, this is my house. Isn't it nice? I landed myself a pretty good job following university, heh heh. That's actually part of my problem though, sort of. Do you like iced tea?"

She pushed open the door and disappeared through it. Her voice echoed back. "Or Coke? Um, I think I have beer in the fridge as well. Oh! Maybe not iced tea, maybe it's lemonade. Come on in! It's just me living here, no need to worry about disturbing any roommates or anything like that."

[Bluestreak]

"Long story?" he echoed, and looked concerned. "That doesn't sound good."

It didn't. He'd half been hoping that she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and they'd been trying to lure Wash out by attempting to ram into her.

Bluestreak had to think about how to react to this. She thought- well, she thought he was human and what would a human do. Oh right, get out of the car. That was a start. He waited for her to step back before he swung his door open -oh shoot, he'd forgotten to push on it, well, at least his avatar's hands had dropped out of sight before he did it. He swung one leg out and then the other and then hopped easily onto his feet, settling his weight over his heels like he did as a mech and looking around.

Behind him, the Datsun twitched slightly, settling on the pavement. He- he could throw himself back out the door if he had to. There was a window, please let there be a window, as long as he could see out of the space, he'd be good, and- wait, concentrate on your avatar. There, the garage seemed way larger somehow when he used that point of sight, but he still couldn't hide that unease that was crawling up his relays. Enclosed spaces. Okay, the garage door was totally flimsy. Of course then he'd wreck her door and feel bad about it. Also, not probably okay on the list of things they weren't supposed to do, wreck people's garage doors.

"Yeah, this is super nice," he agreed, not knowing if it was or wasn't, but figuring it didn't look run down. Neat and clean and just sort of- well, home like. Comfortable. Well the garage was comfortable, so that was a plus. "I mean, I haven't taken much time to drive around a lot of the residential Vegas areas so far, just been transferred."

"Ummm," Bluestreak said as he strode easily along after her. His avatar's boots scuffed along the clean garage floor, the hem of his jeans ruffling the ground. He was guessing that she didn't have a car. No oil spots. Way too clean. Maybe all she rode was the cute little scooter. "I've never had had iced tea, so not sure if I like it but - hey, congrats on the job- maybe, or maybe not so congrats if that's the sort of guys that don't like what you're working on..."

He frowned. "Think they know where you live? That's my concern, that there's a helicopter involved after all."

[Deleted]

Through the door was a little back room of sorts, neat and tidy. There was a plastic mat for shoes, some pegs on the wall for coats, and a little woven basket piled with hats and gloves for all seasons. A washing machine and dryer sat side by side against one wall, with bottles of detergent sitting on top of them. The air smelt like lint and laundry soap.

An open doorway led to another hall, one that shortly branched into a comfortable looking living room. A patterned rug lay on the hardwood floor, and wooden bookshelves stood from floor to ceiling, full of hardback books. Two dark leather sofas faced a large flat-screen television. Behind it a patio door opened onto a small, fenced in green lawn with two big palm trees in one corner.

Carly's voice echoed from the kitchen. It was a spic and span little room to the right, big and white and airy, with a pine table against one wall and a big stainless steel fridge next to the stove. Her keys clattered against the granite counters.

"I don't think so?" she said. "I mean, nobody has every showed up here before. And I only first encountered those guys through work. They contacted me over email. I mean, sure, maybe some totally different guys decided to randomly chase me down in black cars, why not - but I kinda sorta suspect that's not the case. I'm sure it's the same people who emailed me."

She struggled out of her jacket and threw it next to the sink. Then she turned to him and smiled, brightly. She looked tired, but was trying to be sociable.

"Go ahead, sit down!" she said. She shooed Blue at the table. "Make yourself comfortable. Want a drink of something? Iced tea?"

[Bluestreak]

All the human things.

He'd seen houses on TV, but it wasn't the same as being there. Fascinated, Bluestreak took in one thing after another. His first thought was -ah, everything is so tiny. Tiny little doors, tiny little things - what was that on those machines there? Wait, what were those machines there, and for a second he paused to try and figure their boxy capabilities and what they possibly could be. His avatar couldn't smell anything, but his car form crept forward, tiptoing on the tires ever so slightly, hood ducking as he sniffed.

Okay, it smelled like - polish. Human polish and soap. Okay then, this was where she maybe washed herself? Wait, how did she fit herself in that machine then...?

He walked after her, and when he touched the rug with the edge of his boot, he looked down at the Vegas dust that still patterned along the avatar's foot. Carefully he stepped to the side and just looked at the house for a moment. All the windows, oh, he loved it. It felt huge, open-- and so much... well, nicer than the base in some respects. Everything there was closed in, no light, no air, no - look at that, you could wander right out from the house and into the landscape, and more glass.

This was the sort of place he imagined that the towerlings lived. It just felt upscale to him. His own place had been an apartment, and he loved it, but it had been- well, he'd gotten it for the view alone. It had been at the high end of his finances, but it had been worth it to look out of that one window, that one big window and see the lights in the distance, everything spread out around him...

"Oh," he said as she shooed him towards the table. He immediately eyed it suspiciously for a moment; chair? They looked so flimsy and delicate, but he politely touched the chair back and then carefully pulled it towards him, making sure he didn't scratch Carly's pretty floor. Then he settled himself into it, long legs tipped out as carefully as possible one boot over the other, and then laughed to himself as he realized his doors didn't stick out, haha. Neat. "I really like your house. The windows. You have to-- I like all the windows and the light, it's beautiful in here. Um... iced tea? Sure. Or that Coke, that would be great."

Again, on TV, everyone liked Coke. That seemed safe. He couldn't drink it, but... argh, what would Wash do.

Fake it way better than you, Blue.

Right. Okay.

"Work? What do you do that guys like that want to run you off the road? Contacted you over email? I'm guessing no, that nope, that's not a random moment, that's just what it is... they were after you. Did you go and meet them somewhere?"

[Deleted]

“Coke it is,” said Carly cheerfully.

She opened a cupboard and took down two glasses before turning to the fridge. The soft hum of refrigeration filled the air as she rooted around inside it.

“Okay, so.” Carly took two pop cans from the fridge and set them down beside the glasses. She inhaled sharply. “Okay, so – I work as an engineer, right? Graduated from MIT with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering a maybe five years ago, and got a good job in a small company that did some work for, of all things, the Navy. We designed and built cranes,“ she said, grinning suddenly. “You ever seen those big cranes that lift helicopters on aircraft carriers? Well, we made those.”

One of the pop cans hissed as she punched it open. “It was a great job. I mean, for the most part we did civilian work, but that Navy contract was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I got to live on a carrier for four months! Have you ever been on one? It was amazing. Best time of my life.”