Participants:
| Scene Title | How Bad Is That Headache? |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Meg and Cardinal chat. |
| Date | June 9, 2009 |
Camp Miller, Staten Island
It's shortly before four in the afternoon, and it's summer. This means that Cardinal's worst enemy is present in the sky - the sun.
Unfortunately, he had to get up to help with some problems that arose, so right now he's in the mess tent set up on Miller Airfield, settled in on a bench eating some pre-wrapped sandwiches, of which he has two. There's also a bottle of beer next to him. He's wearing a ballcap and shades to reduce the glare, and generally looks like he has a headache.
Walking from the hangar to the mess tent, Megan Young is one of the newer sights on the airfield but she's getting familiar with most of the regulars. She's gaining a reputation with the drivers of the food vans as someone not to mess with — she's got a good sense of humor, cuts up a good bit, cracks jokes, but she's dead serious when it comes to work and she has zero tolerance for volunteers treating those we're out there to help with anything less than respect. And she's gotten in a couple of guys' faces over it. She steps into the mess tent, she glances at the serviceable watch on her wrist to check the time and scans the tent briefly. Making her way to the 'front' to grab some sandwiches, a banana, and a bottle of water, she hesitates only a moment before dropping down at the table with the only other occupant here in the middle of the afternoon. "Montenegro, right?" the redhead asks as she sits. Her keen blue eyes take in his posture and the glasses and she asks matter-of-factly, "Hangover or migraine?"
"I wish it was a hangover." The words are as dry as the chicken salad sandwich in his hand as he lets it fall to the paper plate he's using, Cardinal's fingers lifting to rub against one temple even as he looks up to Megan with a rueful quirk of a smile, "It's the motherfucking sun, unfortunately, and there's no bullets that reach far enough to snuff that lamp out."
A frown crosses her features. "You're photosensitive? Is it constant? And do meds touch it?" Megan asks in somewhat rapid-fire succession.
"Oh, the meds'll help the headache, doesn't stop me bein' fuckin' blind as a bat in open daylight," Cardinal admits, reaching over for his beer, bringing up the bottle and waggling it at her, "Ain't no big deal, sun'll go down in a couple hours. I'm nocturnal anyway."
Megan smiles faintly. "Have you taken medication yet? I can go get a syringe of the good stuff if you need it," she tells him, unwrapping a sandwich. "Not sure anything I can suggest would help with the darking it down for you — certainly nothing that you haven't worked out on your own, anyway. Summer's gotta suck for you, though." She takes a bite and asks around it, "Is it injury-related, or … well, in this neck of the woods, it's probably rude to ask if it's 'ability' related. Though I'm finding a huge percentage of the population seems to have something to hide around here." Her comment is easygoing, as if it doesn't matter much to her one way or the other.
"I would love some of the good stuff, but it'd probably slow me down, and I have a recon trip later I need to be at one hundred percent for… thanks, though," Cardinal replies in gracious refusal, picking up the sandwich again and taking a bite. He chews, swallows, considering her through those dark lenses for a few moments before admitting, "The latter. I can see in the dark. Not so much in the light."
With a brief nod, Megan chews on the ham sandwich she yanked out of the bin and considers. "If your sunglasses aren't polarized, that will help a little, and make sure you have the darkest ones on the market. I can see what an opthamologist friend of mine recommends for photosensitivity. If he's got anything useful, I'll let you know," she tells him calmly. "In the meantime, if you ever do really need it, come see me. I won't let you get hooked."
"Thanks. I mostly just deal with it by sleeping in and keeping the shades down during the day, but…" A vague wave of the sandwich wedge through the air, as Cardinal notes in rue-filled tones, "…can't always do that. I appreciate it, though."
Megan shrugs. "Sure enough." She smiles slightly. "Taking care of Chicago Air's people is at least as important as anything else I'm here doing, right?" She glances out the tent, using the back of the hand holding her sandwich to wipe sweat off her face — it's a bit warm in the tent right now — and then sets the thing down to open the bottle of water. Her eyes come back to his face and she asks, "Spend much time out here?"
Cardinal takes another bite, then sets it down on the plate and leans back - regarding her with a tilt of his head, "What, out at the airfield, or Staten in general?"
"Take your pick," Megan offers mildly. "Right now, I'm coming in and out a lot. Commuting, as it were. Do you live here on the island?"
"I don't live anywhere right now," admits Cardinal with a shake of his head between bites of food, "I have a few places I crash at, now'n again, and some places I keep my shit."
There's a bit of a grin at that, and Megan merely says, "Now why doesn't that surprise me much?" Chicago Air, she's coming to realize more and more, is by far the most insular little company she's ever really worked within — similar to a hospital and even more similar to a military unit without the bullshit attached. And she likes it that way. "Everyone here seems to really like their jobs. It's nice to see," she says mildly.
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't." Cardinal quirks a wry smile, "I doubt that we'll be able to keep completely peaceful forever, though, so, don't get used to the quiet. We'll have trouble soon, mark my words…"
Megan snickers at him. "Oh, I already expect that, not to worry. Actually, Hunter mentioned something I hadn't thought of, so the next few runs, I'm having the drivers take digital cameras to take shots of goons."
Cardinal quirks a brow, up over the edge of his shades. "Not a bad plan," he muses, tapping a finger to the edge of his sandwich, "Identify the hazards beforehand, all that…"
Taking up her sandwich again, Megan eats quickly and speaks around bites. "Not that it'll do much, really. Except maybe piss 'em off enough to make 'em come at us sooner. But we're definitely drawing attention." She shrugs. "Fuck 'em. It's worth doing."
"We're only here until FRONTLINE gets passed anyway, I suspect," Cardinal's nose wrinkles, a hint of distaste in his tone as he speaks of the bill, "Then they'll sweep in and clean house…"
"Mmmm," Megan concedes with a nod. "Hence why at that moment I'm only sort of part-timing it," she tells him with a faint grin. "I think that's about to end, but planning on running it past my other half first." She shrugs. "Seems like the polite thing to do, since he's the reason I'm here."
"Well, I'm sure the Chief's got plenty of work beyond the Staten job," Cardinal chuckles, "In whatever wing of the company we are - I think I'm a defense contractor now, technically. I don't pay much attention to the paperwork that gets shoved at me." He grins, then, "Married, or just serious?"
Megan smirks. "Definitely not married," she tells him. "Serious? Eh… who ever knows about that? Serious enough, I suppose. And Mr. Kobrin's already offered to take me on as a flight nurse full time.. it's work I've done a lot of, so I'm kicking that around too. St. Luke's is a good gig, been there … Christ, nearly 10 years, off and on, I guess. Off when I was out on reserves duty, on the rest of the time," she grins. "But …. Staten's got a challenge to it that I like."
Richard's head bobs in an easy nod, "Reserves, eh? Don't envy you—couldn't do the military life, too much of a fuckin' cynic. System'll fuck you for a buck. At least right now I know what my boss is after, he doesn't hide it."
With a laugh, Megan says, "In the military you know what the boss is after too. But my stint's up anyway. Maybe it's why Staten's so appealing. It's a different kind of battlefield, and even different than the ER battlefield. A new challenge looks good." She shrugs and glances at her watch. "I gotta bolt if I'm gonna catch my flight back to the mainland," she says, grabbing her banana and her water to take with her. "Let me know if you need those meds, Montenegro. I wasn't kidding."