Second Chances

Participants:

faye_icon.gif peyton_icon.gif

Scene Title Second Chances
Synopsis Faye and Peyton appreciate their second chances at family bonds, while discussing Faye's newest career path.
Date February 16, 2010

Der Waffle Haus, Manhattan


It took some time before Faye could consider herself really settled. The telepathic bond to her daughter had faded a long time ago, replaced by many other little voices in the back of her head. The teammates didn't use it much in the test, and they've faded now too. Alone and apart, she flipped through the phonebook on her phone and dialed up Peyton, inviting her out to a quick breakfast. A locale was given, a diner known for it's waffles not too far from Peyton's apartment. With her hands warmed by the steaming cup of coffee she holds, she waits in a booth visible from the door.

The clairvoyant was happy to hear from her birth mother — her only relative from her adopted parents a grandmother who blames her for her parents' death, Peyton has missed having anyone she could call "family," aside from of course her friends and roommates that have become a kind of family. She happily accepted the invitation, and she arrives promptly at the hour given, cheeks rosy from the chilly air outside as she enters the diner. Her eyes skim the restaurant until she sees Faye watching for her, and she heads to the booth with a wave to the hostess to indicate she has found her party.

"Hi, Faye," Peyton says softly, sliding into the booth. The name sounds slightly awkward, unfamiliar to Peyton, and strange, using a first name for a parent, even if the woman is barely more than a stranger. "How are you?"

"I'm doing okay. There's been a lot going on the last few weeks, starting with meeting you finally," Faye says, voice calm and quiet, before she pushes her warm coffee aside to glance over at the menu as the waitress passes back over to dtop one off for Peyton, and ask for a drink order. Once she knows the drink, they're left alone again. Or as alone as they can be in this situation. "Has anything happened with that man you mentioned? Are you okay?"

Peyton adds cream and sugar into the coffee, shaking her head. "He's in rehab, I think. He was pretty strung out, a couple times that I looked in on him, and now he's in some facility," she says quietly. "There are others helping watch him now for me — so I don't over use my power. It kind of gives me migraines and such." She doesn't mention the possibility of a stroke because she doesn't want to worry yet another person over her use of her power. "Things are … all right." There's a slight smile — some things are better in that she has one person she was afraid was lost to her back in her life, even if not in corporeal form. It's still one more friend than she had before Cardinal returned.

"Mine gave me headaches originally too," Faye admits quietly, smiling somewhat as she looks down at her bare hand. This is the first time she's not been at least wearing gloves around her to start off, even if they'd touched for a while. "I'm glad you have someone else to look out for him. You shouldn't overtax yourself." Especially not at her young age! But— it's more worry and concern. Good thing the woman doesn't know about the stroke issues. Migraines are bad enough, it would seem! "I— I have a new job," she interjects after a moment. "You'll probably hear about it soon if you read newspapers."

"A new job?" Peyton echoes, brows knitting a bit in curiosity, after she smiles at the admission of migraines. Maybe they have other things in common. "And in the newspapers? Are you someone famous or something? What are you going to be doing?" She can't imagine that a Coast Guard retiree would do something that would get her in the newspapers, but then, Peyton did less and was in national magazines just for being in the right place at the right time in the right outfit with the right people. Or perhaps wrong people, if you consider she was usually high or drunk or both in the pictures.

"I was given the opportunity to join FRONTLINE," Faye says quietly, but matter of factly. "After hearing what happened to you in the last year, and having seen some of the dangerous things going on while helping with search and rescue operations, I chose to join. Hopefully this way I can help stop things like that from happening again." Dangerous evolved, acts of terrorism. She sounds optimistic, but also concerned. She doesn't know how her daughter— a daughter she never got to know— would feel about such a job.

There's a little flicker of surprise in Peyton's face, though it's not outright disgust or anger. After all, FRONTLINE came to her rescue at least once, on Staten, and Liz is a member of the squad as well. "Wow. That's… that's really dangerous, isn't it?" Her brows furrow now with worry rather than any sort of fear of the actual entity of FRONTLINE. She's more worried for her mother's safety, now that they're newly reunited. "I … I don't want you to put yourself in danger for me, Faye," she adds, looking troubled at the thought.

"I'm the communications officer, so I won't be in quite as dangerous a situation as some," Faye says, trying to offer that tidbit of assurances. It won't keep her out of danger completely, of course, but it does do something. She's not the weapons expert, who needs to be upclose and personal. Her job is to make sure they can contact and communicate, no matter what…

Which requires her to be alive. She doesn't have to be in the heat of things, though she's sure she will be. "It won't be as bad as you suspect, I'm sure. The rest of the unit are extremely skilled."

"I hope it's not. I mean… it's kind of like SWAT, right? I don't see how it can't be dangerous," Peyton says with a wrinkled nose, but then she tilts her head. "Is … is a blond woman named Elisabeth Harrison in your unit?" she asks, curiously. She probably shouldn't admit to knowing Liz, but if she knows the two of them are working together, it will make her feel a touch better about each of their safety. And also doubly worried when they're out on the job.

"Harrison? Yes, there is. She's the logistics officer— the one who does a lot of the planning," Faye responds, a surprised quirk of her eyebrow at the question. There hadn't been a whole lot of shop talk, and Harrison had been one of the ones most openly concerned with the nature of her ability. A common response to telepathy, sure, even one that doesn't do mind-reading at all. There's a sudden interuption, though, as the waitress comes over and asks what they want. Faye orders a blueberry waffle. Once orders are taken, she takes the menues, and goes elsewhere.

Leaving Faye to ask, "I guess you know her?"

Peyton isn't surprised Liz is the planner. She orders a waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. Not the healthiest choice, but she'll work it off somehow. Probably lugging file boxes around in the library. "Yeah. We're friends, sort of." She can't tell her mother how exactly they're friends, but she can let her know they know one another. "It's good that you're on the same unit," Peyton adds with a smile. "I feel better knowing you're with someone I kinda know, if that makes any sense." Her cheeks flush a little. "I know you've done dangerous stuff your whole life probably so me worrying now is kind of silly, but … well, I do."

"I was on search and rescue, mostly, not 'frontline' combat situations." And that was said without quite realizing the pun, though she seems to get it after a moment. A smile tugs on the corner of Faye's mouth, before she continues. "Most of the dangerous things were going into situations that were dangerous for others in order to pull them out. I— actually consider this to be the same. I just hope that I can help protect people. And I do understand that it would make you feel better, knowing one of the people at my side. I feel better knowing you had friends like Harrison."

"She's a good friend to have," Peyton agrees, feeling safer in her life with Liz back in town, even if Danko is out free as well. Now with her mother in her corner, she feels all the more secure. "Thanks for telling me though. It'd be a little shocking to read it in the newspaper, like you said." She smiles. "By the way… is anyone else in our family … special?" Evolved, she means, of course. Her grandfather, her brother? Her father, though she knows her mother won't mention him.

"My father is a such a good and loyal Coast Guard officer he would have registered immediately if he were, but we've never really talked about it. We used to be close, but we've had disagreements," Faye says, looking down toward her bare hands again. "I haven't told him I joined FRONTLINE, but since the Coast Guard is tied to Homeland Security, I wouldn't be surprised if he already knows." Or if he'd even recommended her. "I don't think anyone else in the family is, either. My mother might have been, I suppose."

"He wouldn't … he wouldn't want to meet me, right?" Peyton says of Faye's father, the man who forced his daughter to give up her own child. Even if it were for the best. "I mean… did you tell him that we're in contact?" She moves her hand off her coffee cup to put in her mother's hand, to renew the bond that has faded.

There's a small smile as the bond begins to reopen. Faye's eyes close, wondering how many she could have, in hopes that she won't have to ditch this one in order to do her job at FRONTLINE. It's a bridge she'll have to cross soon… "I could take you to meet him, if you want. I haven't told him yet, no. We're— just not as close as we should be anymore. I think it's both of our faults, that," she says, smiling faintly. One of their biggest disagreements, the first big one, really, had been about the girl whose hand she's now holding…

Peyton stares down at their hands, uncertainty manifesting in a furrow of her brows. "If… if he wants to meet me," she says quietly, knowing it was his idea to give her up for adoption. Maybe he'd rather she not be back in their lives. "I wouldn't want to surprise him." Or be rejected in person. "I fought with my … my adopted parents a lot, so I know how that is. I wasn't the best child." There is regret in her tone — they wanted to mold her into their likeness, but she didn't have to disobey so publicly, embarrassing them. "He probably wouldn't approve of my past…" she adds, meaning her grandfather of course.

"He would probably say you took after me," Faye says with a laugh, not hiding her own colorful past at all. The girl wouldn't be here if she didn't have a somewhat rebellious streak. "It doesn't matter if he disapproves. Not to me at least." It'd just be one of the many disapprovals. "But I'll ask him." It's one of those things that's just hard to know how it will go— But that doesn't mean she won't try.

The younger of the two brunettes nods. "I don't want to cause him any trouble or anything, so if it's… easier for him not to know, that's fine. I respect that," she murmurs. "I just … I guess I finally realized family's important, after mine was taken from me. I feel that there's kind of a second chance for one, at least with you." She smiles, her dark eyes sparkling with just a hint of tears.

Of course, that's when the food arrives, blueberry for Faye and strawberry for Peyton. "Here's to an extra hour at the gym," Peyton quips.

"No, it's not that I didn't want him to know. I got busy with FRONTLINE training and we hadn't really been talking on a daily basis, either," Faye explains, seeming to be telling the truth. "You do have a second chance, though, either way." With her, if not with her father.

"Never hurts to have a few extra calories." So says the person who will be working hers off in the special mechanized armor that FRONTLINE gets to wear…

Peyton will walk hers off tromping back and forth to Midtown, of course. "Here's to second chances. It's good you're back in town, Faye," Peyton tells her mother, lifting her coffee cup in an impromptu little toast to clink against her mother's.


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