Confusion And Dismay

Participants:

william_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif

Scene Title Confusion and Dismay
Synopsis Is she *ever* going to understand this guy?
Date January 23, 2009

Captain William Harvard's Office, Police HQ


She's been so damned busy doing the job that he assigned her, Elisabeth hasn't really been in the office all that much. And when she has, she's been on the phone. But she met yesterday with the commissioner of police, and the rest of the day yesterday and today she spent coordinating the job about to go down. When the captain goes through the small squad room to his office, she hesitates a moment and then gets up to go into the office and speak with him. Knocking on his doorframe, Liz asks quietly, "Got a minute?"

Throwing a manilla folder to the side, in shock at the sudden entrance of Elisabeth, the files in the folder spill casually out and onto the floor beneath. William's eyes twitch over to her in a flick of irritation, he is dressed sharply and is currently seated behind his desk. "What's up, Liz?"

"Well…. a good bit, actually. But since I haven't seen you since the interrogation rooms turned into a free-for-all, I haven't had a lot of time to brief you. You want the short-short version? Or …. is there something I can do help *you* before you get dumped on here?" Elisabeth is watching him somewhat warily. He's been clearly backing every move she's made lately, but ….. on a lot of levels, that's sort of disturbing in and of itself. She moves to close the door behind her.

William's face distorts a bit. "I don't like that terminology, makes it sound like you're going to defacate all over me." He shakes his hand as if to make it clear, "I'm not into that." Adjusting his tie he goes to lean back in his chair, lifting one foot up to set on his leg. He gestures to one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. "I've been following your moves. But yes, dump on me."

There's a long moment where Elisabeth just blinks at him. Because he's always so DEADPAN. And then she starts to chuckle. "Will… one of these days…" She shakes her head on a laugh. "Glad to know where the limits are, boss. I shall not shit in your office or anywhere in your vicinity. Promise," she tells him with a grin. "The commissioner approved the plan, I've got eight bomb squads inbound and setting up for tonight. Darius is coordinating with them and briefing them on what they'll be dealing with. We've got the teleporter and the cryokinetic scheduled to meet with us shortly. I'm going to take whoever I can get my hands on from SCOUT to help with monitoring the situation around each of the bridges, and I'm going to have uniforms on either end doing the mundane traffic stops to keep anyone from asking questions. A weather manipulator is going to be giving us a ton of fog cover." She sighs. "*If* it goes well, we're going to be 8 to 12 hours out there. I may not get a report to you until after that, but I'll be on the cell whenever you want an update tonight."

"I'll be there." William says bluntly, picking up a pen to play with it idly, his eyes not going to meet her. "You've been doing very well, Liz. I'm proud of you. Hopefully no one gets blown up and the world doesn't end tonight, because.." He gives a little shrug going to point the pen at her. His mouth opens to continue on what he was just saying but apparently, he has lost his train of thought because his mouth slowly and oh so awkwardly closes.

Elisabeth leans back against his door, as if she's going to stand there and block it forever. "Because?" she asks gently. There are lots of endings implied there… 'because that'd suck' tops the list. "Will…. " She sighs quietly and looks out his windows over the squad room, which is mostly empty at the moment because SCOUT has such a diverse case load. She looks back at him. "You've spent the past two weeks being the most supportive boss ever, but you've been avoiding a *lot* of topics with me lately. It's kind of unnerving, given that you *were* giving me shit every other day for hiding things from you. Maybe it's time you just tell me what's going through your head, hmm?"

"You just said you were going to be pulling SCOUTs out there. I'll be there. I'm a SCOUT." William reminds gently, going to set the pen on the table. Leaning back in his chair he brings up to smoothly and suavely place one foot on his desk. Nevermind that it accidentally knocks over his mug of dark liquid, luckily it wasn't very full and only makes a small puddle. He seems to ignore it.

"People change." William says with a little shrug. "And it makes my chest all warm inside that you're confused as shit." He says with a charming smile.

Raising a single eyebrow at him, Liz fixes him with an amused gaze. "Why? Because you were confused for a long while?" She ignores the 'I'm a SCOUT' part… she's GLAD he'll be there. It'll help. "Truth be told, I've been waiting for you to slap me in cuffs ever since we brought her in. Or at least chuck me on administrative leave and leave me at the mercy of IA. And instead, you turned all 'go ahead, get out and go do!' boss. People don't change THAT much, Will. C'mon… tell me what's up," she cajoles.

"How's whatshisface?" William asks, bringing his shoe back to kick his rolling chair away from the desk, going into a little spin the man's shoes land soundly on the ground as he stands up an out of his chair. "Horton. You two still…" He gives a look to her, though what he is trying to say with that look could be anyone's guess, his eyebrows arch for just a moment and his lips purse.

He could be baiting her. It wouldn't be the first time. Liz just looks back at him calmly. "Yes, Will, we're still best friends. We're going to remain that way for a long time to come," she replies. "If you're asking me about whether we're still dating? No, we're not. We're… hell, I don't know. We'll see where we are when he's well." What with Norton still recovering from being shot and all. "Why?"

He gives a little shrug, his hand running along the window as he turns to face her fully. "Let me know when we ride out." He says, tilting his head back a little bit.

There's a sigh at him. A sound he's possibly even heard from his family before — a gusty feminine sigh of absolute exasperation. "You are the most frustrating male I have ever had the misfortune of crossing, William Harvard," she comments. "And yes, I fully realize that I've crossed you a number of times in the short time I've worked for you. And yet, somehow, we're still here. So…. for what it's worth to you, I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything you needed to know about Jessica and Niki Sanders. It nearly went south, and that's on my head." She grimaces a bit. "And this bomb thing… that's on my head too. So here's hoping that I know what the hell I'm doing, cuz in all honesty? If we're in a position for you to say 'I told you so' later, it'll probably be to my grave." She pffts softly and then adds quietly, "And … thank you. For trusting me when I told you about the bombs."

A falsetto 'ah' is given in hurt when she describes his crossing be a misfortunate one. He tilts his head almost all the way to his shoulder as he watches her confess everything. His lips pursing together for a moment. Tucking his thumbs into his belt, he gives a little 'hmm'. "You did what you thought you needed to." William says softly.

For a long moment, she merely looks at him. Her term 'crossing' had been literal — they've been at cross-purposes for some time and she's been not doing something he wanted for all that time. And then Elisabeth shakes her head when he basically just seems to blow it off. "Every time I think I understand men, one of you does something totally off the wall," she comments with a baffled expression. But she leaves it at that. "All right. We'll be starting on the Brooklyn Bridge at 9pm on the dot. There's going to be a *lot* of fog. The river's likely to be entirely fogged in. So be careful if you're jumping around on the bridge struts," she tells him softly. She'd hate for him to fall in the river.

"I prefer 'leaping'. I don't jump, I leap." The jumper instructs quietly, taking a few steps towards her. He finally pauses his advance just a foot before her. His eyes peer deeply at her facial figures, his tongue wetting his lips for a moment. There's another long moment of silence before he murmurs. "See you thre."

The confusion in her expression doesn't abate as she watches his face for a clue to what's going on in his head. They stand there, staring at one another, for a long moment, and then Elisabeth says quietly, "Yeah. Just… keep the squad on the outskirts, out of sight of the public. Lau wants us watching like hawks to see if anyone seems to be acting odd out there while we do our thing." She grimaces a little. "She wanted Parkman on the ground too, though I'm not certain I can get hold of him before tonight. But it's going down regardless."

A slow nod. "I can't wait to meet your team." He murmurs as he turns his back on Elisabeth, going back to take a seat once again. Though just now does he seem to notice the puddle of coke on his desk. Fuddling around he eventually finds something enough napkin like to pass, and quickly dabs at it to clean up the mess.

"See you there, Will," Liz replies softly. And then she slips out of his office, to spend the rest of the day trying to work and being befuddled by her boss.


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January 23rd: Ten Years
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January 23rd: Good Dogs
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