We're Not Dating

Participants:

cassidy_icon.gif coren_icon.gif

Scene Title We're Not Dating
Synopsis Coren cooks breakfast after Cassidy knocks on his bedroom door and informs him that Mortimer has escaped. He is not pleased with the news, and tries to lock Cassidy up in his apartment for her own good.
Date May 20, 2009

Lower East Side - Casa De Shelby


It is one of the rare occasions that Coren is actually asleep at night. But, after a few glasses of wine and a good meal, and being up for over a day, Coren decided it might be nice to sleep for a few hours. So, around two o'clock in the morning, he gets into his pinstripe pyjamas and crawls into his grossly neglected king-sized bed for what will turn out to be just two hours short of what he intended.

Cassidy debated long and hard as to whether to wake him, staring at her cellphone in her hand for a long moment. The whole thing was completely surreal. Sighing, she flipped back the covers and swings sliding off the bed. Of course, she's in those Eeyore PJs.. Since he had already seen them, there is nothing left to be embarrassed about, especially with the scars gone. Phone in hand she pads softly over to Coren's bedroom door. Tilting her head a bit she listens for a moment before lifting a hand to knock softly on the door.

The knock only briefly makes Coren stir. What wakes him up is the sudden thunk after his cell phone vibrates off his night stand and hits the hard floor. That makes him wake up, and he can't help but make his way half off his bed to pick it up, flipping it open to see some unfamiliar number and no indication that he has voicemail. He rubs his head slightly. Was there a knock at his door? He pulls himself fully out of bed and makes his way to the door, where he opens it. Something inside him makes him change his words from 'is something wrong' to "What's happened?"

Looking a bit worried, Cassidy takes a step back as the door open. She hesitates a moment before she says. "Got a bit of a problem. I just got a phone call." Strangely the woman isn't freaking out, upset or nervous as she says the next thing. "Mortimer escaped." Mostly she looks a tad bit worried and if what's in her head is any indication, she more worried about the fact that the man was taken when he didn't want to go.

"Escaped?" Coren asks. "How does a one-armed man escape two police officers guarding the hospital room he's recovering in from his … incident?" Clearly, the idea seems quite laughable to Coren. Of course, he's unaware of Cassidy's visitations or anything else about Mortimer beyond the fact that, last he checked, his one arm was handcuffed to a bedrail and had two armed police officers guarding the room he was held in.

"He had help. His gang and some female evolved.. But that's all I know. I do know he didn't have any idea about the break out." Cassidy says blandly. Holding up her phone, she drops her eyes to stare at his pin-striped chest. "He…. called me." She closes her eyes and braces herself, she just knows he's going to get mad. She's finiding herself regretting visiting the man, but at the same time not since he was treated badly.

No, he couldn't possibly have heard right — could he have? "I'm sorry, Cassidy, it almost sounded like you said he called you," he says. No, clearly he must have misheard. How would the man have her cell phone number? Then again, he managed to get her address, but that's because he followed her. No, he must have heard wrong.

Cassidy looks up a bit of a pained expression on her face. "That's what I said. I have no idea how he got my cellphone number.. but he's got it." She holds up a hand and adds quickly. "He wanted to tell me that he didn't plan it.. that they came in and took him." She chews at her lower lip thoughtfully. "I knew the officers, in charge of guarding his ass, shoulda taken my warning seriously. He told me that he was sure that they would try and to warn the guards but they…." She trails off pressing her lips togethers, realizing she's saying more then she should have.

"Wonderful. Now we both have people we don't want having our cell phone numbers having them," Coren says, likely referring to his own mystery caller. He makes his way past Cassidy to head down the hall to the kitchen. "Apparently they didn't bother listening to me, either," Coren says as he pulls out a kettle and two mugs. He fills the kettle with water. "Any particular reason you felt the need to visit that … piece of work?"

Taking a couple of steps back to let him past her, Cassidy moves to follow shortly after him. "The first time… I needed to face him. I needed to look him in the eye." The idea at the time had scared her. "I needed to see for myself that he was in custody." She crosses her arms and moves to rest a hip against the sink. "I… didn't expect what I found there." She trails off, her mind filled with images of a scared and crying young man, begging her to believe he was not going to hurt her and that he was sorry. "And before you ask.. I visited a total of three times."

Coren prepares a teapot with two bags of English Breakfast tea and pulls a lemon from the fridge, which he slices thin. "So if you visited once to face him, what were the other two visits for?" he asks. She has not asked about his own words to the guards, so he does not mention it further. The mugs are placed on saucers. No sugar or milk is pulled out for the tea. He never uses either in his tea.

Debating how much she should mention, Cassidy bites her lower lip. "He was getting treated pretty badly. I mean, I know Dutch about died… But he does have rights." Fingers tap on her arm as she watches him prepare tea. She frowns a bit and looks up at him. "You warned them about escaping too? Joy.. somehow I don't think we'll be able to write them up for it." Her stomache a bit queasy at the thought of those guards. "He mentioned he thinks the Female Evolved might have killed them."

Coren does not pay too much attention to the comment about rights. Not only is he not particularly concerned about Mortimer's well-being, he was not aware of anyone treating the man poorly. "When I was waiting for the boat, the member of Mortimer's gang we also caught, who was filming the whole fight, said that Mortimer kept the gang together, he was their leader and he — the gang member — didn't know what they would do without him." Coren pulls out a frying pan, a couple of eggs, and some of the leftover beef. "I thought of two possibilities. One was that someone would take his place. The other was precisely what happened — they'd break him out. I did not entirely dismiss it, even though he'd lost his arm. So I warned the guards myself, told them they should not let anyone but police and hospital personnel get anywhere near the room, and to report any suspicious activity.

He starts frying the leftover prime rib. "Well, we may as well not worry ourselves too much about this, aside from keeping you safe. If they're willing to break him out for them, who knows how far they'll go. At any rate, we'll never be allowed to touch this case, not with our connections to it being what they are."

Cassidy gives a short nod and sighs. "He mentioned a list of people he had made. In case he got caught and couldn't be freed.. or died." Seems they talked about a lot. She turns and turns on the faucet and starts washing her hands. "Keeping me safe?" She asks and then shrugs. "I… really don't think there is anything to worry about there."

And the beef gets flipped. "You're not going back to your apartment," Coren says flatly, taking the kettle from the element and pouring the boiling water into the teapot. "Not until we're certain." It appears he's made another decision about Cassidy that he won't take any argument about. The teapot is closed and set aside.

The water shuts off and Cassidy sets her hands on the edge of the sink. She doesn't look happy about the way he said that. "Oh.. Is that right.. And you've just decided I don't get a say in this?" She asks her tone flat and void of emotions. "I personally think I will be fine going home." And she does. She doesn't seem to think she's in any danger.

Coren pulls out two plates and sets them down next to the range. One chunk of meat on one place, another on the other. He cracks the eggs and begins to fry them up. "I never said you had no say, I just think you are again underestimating the lengths to which individuals such as Mortimer and those that follow them, will go to. Believe me when I say, it's better to be safe than sorry."

"I'll… be…. fine." Cassidy says those words slowly and clearly as possible. She moves to pull silverwares out of the drawer. "I'm not underestimating him.. I believed him when he said he he would never hurt me. It'll be fine." She avoids saying.. Not like you can keep me here. A part of her wants to stay.. but the fact that he said that makes her more determined to go… funny how things work like that. She grabs a couple of napkins and moves to sit them on the table.

"A female evolved killed two officers breaking him out," Coren says, giving the eggs a gentle flip in the skillet before he turns the old electric element off. Tea is poured after he slips four slices of bread into his toaster and sets them to crisp up, all the while he continues on his pseudo-rant: "What if you'd been there? Do you think they'd have cared that Mortimer wanted to spare you, for whatever reason he has? If you believe he won't hurt you, that's fine. But his people aren't him. They they clearly capable of doing things on their own, or else he'd still be there." Clearly these are his own fears.

Cassidy gives a shrug of her shoulder brushing off the concern. "I'll take my chances." It's a simple statement of fact. "I've been living here for a week already and I know the rumors are going to start." Things need to go back to the way they were. She glances back at him and moves to pick up the plates of food, to help out. "I'm moving home Coren. Simple as that."

It's amazing how they can go from toasting the brass for picking the best possible partners to bickering like a married couple in only a handful of hours. Coren lets out a sigh as he pops the toast up, perfectly browned, and tosses two slices on each plate as Cassidy passes by him on her way to putting the plates on the table. He pulls marmalade from the fridge and sets it, along with a butter knife, onto the table with the other utensils. Once he brings the two tea cups to the table, he takes a seat. "I'm more concerned for your safety than for what rumours might develop, Cassidy. Just give me an extra day or two, that's all I ask. I want to hear where the investigation into his escape heads." He can be reasonable.

"You say that now…" Cassidy comments dryly as she sets the plates on the table. She presses her lips together concidering. After a moment she nods. "Fine.. two days." She moves to dig out two glasses, setting them on the table before going to the fridge to get the orange juice. "I still think you're worrying over nothing." She pours them each a glass of juice and then finally sits down. She eyes the tables and she gets an odd look on her face as she realizes that they just did that like they had done that thousands of times before. "Did you….." She starts to motion at the table and then shakes her head, waving the thought away. "I've been staying too long Coren. We need things to go back to the way they were."

"Two days. If nothing suggests that Mortimer or his goons are going to come after you, then I will drive you to your apartment myself. I just don't want to help add to his police bodycount." Coren cuts into the fried beef with his fork, skewers some egg onto that, and takes a bite, looking at Cassidy with mild curiosity as she pours the juice and sits down. "Did I what?" he asks. He doesn't bother to mention the fact that nothing will quite be the same again.

Cassidy shakes her head quickly and picks up her utensils and start to cut the fried beef. "Nothing.." But her expression is still confused. "I understand, but… I really think it's better I go home." She sets down her utensils without taking the bite. "Look. I know I'm sitting here just beating a dead horse.. but things are getting weird.. It's like…. I know what needs to be done. That's a sign that we've been occupying the same space too long. Only people in a relationship for a decent amount of time get that way. We're partners.. not dating."

"Great minds think alike?" Coren asks, "Certainly beats having to constantly say, 'could you do this, could you do that?'." He eats more of his breakfast. "It does seem a little odd, doesn't it?" he says after some silence. "There's no way we've been occupying the same space enough to do that. I'm hardly ever here." Which is true, since he's only really at home for maybe three hours a day, sometimes five or six hours every two days. "Perhaps just work bleeding into home life, or something else." He doesn't verbalize what the something else is. He's suspected something about her ability for a while. Coffee, his first wife, the synchronicity of this 4:00 am breakfast. Little things here and there. "If it bothers you that much, go home. But as I said, I want to make sure nothing has changed with regards to your apartment since Mortimer's escape."

"Odd? It's creepy." Cassidy murmurs picking her fork up again. She glances up at him realizing what she said might be a bit mean. "Maybe.. I guess it could be work.. I dunno." She gives a relieved sigh. "Thank you, Coren.. For understanding." Things need to go back, before… she gives a shake of her head. "Take a team into my apartment today if you want to make sure."

Coren nods slowly as he eats his food, sipping on orange juice periodically. He spreads marmalade on his toaste before starting to munch on it in between the fried leftover beef and the fried egg. So it turns out he's not too shabby a cook. "I fully intend to," he says at last, of taking a team into her apartment. "We'll check to see if there was any unusual activity and the like, anyone appearing out of place. With any luck, you'll be able to move in whenever you like."

Cassidy doesn't say anything else for a long time, just concentrating on going through the motions of breakfast. Finally she looks up at Coren and say with a smirk. "And don't leave anything behind.. I don't need to be monitored." Her tone says that's she half joking. She takes a sip of the tea, grimaces a bit and get's up to get the sugar. She finds it in the first cabinet she opens. She stares at it for a long moment before taking it down. She turns back to the table and stops thinking about some. "You know.. I don't remember having to ask you where anything is."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Coren says. The lemon is all he needs in his tea, counteracting what little bitterness the blend of Asian teas has. It's not quite as bad as pure black tea. He looks up as Cassidy stares at the sugar and makes her remark. "I have three cupboards, one with pots and pans, one with plates, saucers, mugs, and glasses, and one with everything else. It's not a stretch that I'd keep the sugar with the cereal and tea," Coren states calmly, tending to the last of his toast.

"I guess.. That makes sense…" Staring at the sugar again, Cassidy turns and puts it back in the cupboard. "I think I need to go back to bed." She says finally still sounding uncertain and confused. "I must need more sleep.. I'm making such weird…. " A look is given to the table. "You got all that?" The question is asked softly, the woman suddenly looking tired again.

"Sure thing, luv. Go get a couple more hours," Coren says. Six o'clock comes early. Once he's finished the last of his fried prime rib, he clears the table, letting Cassidy get off to bed while he tends to the dishes. He can go another day without sleep. It's not a problem for him, thankfully. One of those benefits of having superhuman endurance.


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