Participants:
| Scene Title | Team Building Exercises |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elizabeth gathers FRONTLINE's three newest members for a somewhat informal evening. |
| Date | November 16, 2010 |
The team-building exercises are … well, to be frank, mostly pretty lame. Basically a huge game of 20 Questions. Elisabeth settled on something a bit more informal, bringing her squad mates in for pizza and beer (or soda if they prefer) and a more casual kind of pow-wow to let them get to know one another.
"All right, you people," Elisabeth says in a soft, husky voice that has a strained edge to it. "I know you expect that just hanging out here isn't going to happen a lot… but as things settle, you might be surprised. This is not the first such night I've had in this base." She smiles a bit at them. "That said, however… tonight's the last night you'll all be together here for the next couple of weeks unless I have to call you back from Annapolis."
Blue eyes skim the group of women — Felix hasn't made his appearance yet because he's out on a call — and there's a hint of a smirk at the corner of her mouth. Tris would have loved this. It's damn near an all-girl team. How the fuck did that happen? Shaking her head for a moment, she's quiet. Then she says, "I'm going to send you to Annapolis for your armor training, ladies, and it's going to be a bit different than what the rest of us had. Accelerated and more individualized. You'll spend two full days in Annapolis at the beginning of your run, then it'll be one day in Annapolis thereafter with two days between. So Hannah'll head out first for her two days while I work with the other two of you here on other duties and some light suit training, then when she comes back here to practice what they want to see, Kait'll go. Gavyn doesn't need the two days, so she'll just be doing her stint full-out at the Academy. Although the rioting has been mostly quelled, we're getting enough calls that I don't feel comfortable sending the entire squad to Annapolis."
Slouched in one of the chairs off to the side of the others some, legs out in front of her with her ankles crossed, Kaitlyn Dooley is paying attention to what Elisabeth has to say, head nodding slowly. Her expression is thoughtful in wonder, especially a certain toy. Maybe she'll get more training in that, while up there.
Her clothing isn't overly fancy, with a simple white button up shirt and a pair of jeans. Kaitlyn's dark hair is styled, with the ends curling inward… when she was homeless her hair had always been brushed, even if it had been full of dead ends. "Sounds like a plan." Kait finally quips, taking a swig of the beer.
Hannah’s fingers drum on the table she sits at, peer ahead at Elisabeth with largely rapt attention. The lack of new faces there that evening doesn’t surprise her, and the presence of three familiar, if not well known faces has her looking rather relaxed, a drink sitting already a good quarter finished next to her.
“Sounds simple enough,” she replies to Elisabeth’s detailing of how the next few days – and ultimately weeks – are going go, giving a nod in her direction. “I suppose it’s good that I never really unpacked much, then. Will make getting ready for tomorrow that much easier.” Reaching up and adjusting the beret on her head, she looks over to her squadmates. She’s dressed in what could only be considered business casual – buttoned up black shirt, gray slacks, and her dark blue beret.
A spot on the floor had been claimed since Gavyn arrived, the young woman in sunglasses sitting crosslegged with her back leaning against the front of a couch. She watches Elisabeth in silence, concern evident even if her eyes are hidden. "Good idea," she agrees quietly, head dipping in a nod. The riots were bad enough that she'd been called in from training, to split the squad up further would be a bad idea.
Gavyn's dressed as she often is these days, uniform and boots, sunglasses and hair pulled back into a tight bun. She looks away from Elisabeth to regard Kaitlyn and Hannah briefly. "There any reason to believe we'll be called in again," she asks, shaded eyes returning to their leader.
"At this time, we expect the worst is over," Elisabeth replies huskily. "There's no guarantee, I suppose — no one wants to know what'll happen if the trigger phrase is ever used again or something." That's the understatement of the millenium. "But right now, we're assuming most of what we're going to be doing on our end is clean-up. Backing up the NYPD and other boots on the ground during martial law." And this is the sticking point for her.
"I imagine most of you haven't lived through martial law in this town. I'm going to tell you here and now that a lot of these soldiers and cops are going to be trigger-happy. They're scared. They're looking to keep the peace at all costs. And they will pick up anyone on the slightest provocation. Although your job is to back them all up, I'm also giving you a directive to keep a cool head and for God's sake do not let them abuse this power. Quite frankly, I have zero interest in chucking anyone into this Evo Gitmo they're yammering about on the fucking news. We're walking a fine line, but I refuse to allow us to be the Gestapo. Are we clear on what this means?"
Brows lift a bit at the idea of Kaitlyn, herself, being trigger happy. "Don't got much of a reason to to jump the gun on things like that, in fact, I've got all the reason to not do that." A glance goes to her bottle giving it a swish and finding it empty, which has her frowning a bit. Kaitlyn doesn't voice any opinion on the new prison, she can't really without having to explain where she's coming from and where she got her initial training. "But, alright… so… what your askin' is that we attempt to be the voice of reason in a hot situation and cool it if possible?"
The mention of “Evo Gitmo” has Hannah furrowing her brows a bit – her expression makes it clear enough that the idea doesn’t sit too terribly well with her. “Absolutely, m’am,” Hannah replies, sitting up a bit straighter in her seat. “That’s about the last thing I ever want to see myself, so I don’t think you will find an issue there.” She grins a bit, nodding. “I assuming there will be some time spent particularly on Roosevelt Island, in that case?” Fingers continue drumming, a curious brow raised in Elisabeth’s direction.
"Yes, ma'am," Gavyn replies. Though she's frowning, wondering but uncertain. She drapes an arm over one knee, the other left to rub against her eyes. "Will we have other means of persuasion, with our regular weapons as a last resort?" In other words, will anything non-lethal be loaned out?
"Hell yes," Elisabeth says to Kaitlyn's query. "In any situation that you're called to, I expect that you will not respond in any knee-jerk fashion." She pauses and says, "I'm a cop at heart. If you haul people in, the why of it better stand up to my scrutiny. I don't care what anyone says about the rule of law in this town, I'm not letting this team be party to a witch hunt." And if they don't like it, well…. she guesses they'll just have to fire her ass.
To Hannah, Elisabeth nods slightly. "Probably, but we're the on-call team for the entirety of the city with the exception of Staten. It's going to have its own team. So it may not be as much. We're still hashing out where the best use of resources is."
As to Gavyn's request, Elisabeth grins a little. "I'm working on getting us the less lethal rubber bullets for this kind of shit as a backup. They seemed to work well on anyone not affected, and Kait's new toy certainly was effective. With things still in flux as Kershner briefs me for the next few days, those kinds of questions will have answers, I just don't have all of them at this moment." She pauses and lifts her beer to her lips to swallow some of it before commenting, "A lot of what I do will be in your headset from the command center, from what I'm told. But I'm a pretty hands-on type, so don't be surprised if I'm boots-on-the-ground once I'm feeling up to par. Any other questions?"
Kaitlyn looks like a proud mom at the mention of the drone a smirk pulling up a corner of her mouth. "Way better an option then mowin' people down with true lead. Though if you see that YouTube, they keep claimin' we were killin' people with Proto." The medic states blandly, with a roll of her eyes.
"Plus, the rubber bullets hurt, but it ain't the same kinda hurt." The healer should know, Kaitlyn's ability sucking in that way for her job. "So I am all for non-leathal where we can."
“People are going to assume the worst of us, at least until we prove them otherwise,” Hannah offers in response to Kaitlyn, shaking her head. “Which does seem like it will be an uphill battle, but nonlethal and cool heads will hopefully help that a lot.” Her fingers finally cease their drumming, Hannah taking a long sip of her drink. Looking back at Elisabeth, Hannah folds her arms, thinking for a minute. “Where, to be exact, does our authority stand in contrast to the other forces on the ground here? In case some wayward solider or cop decides they don’t want to listen to our cool heads?”
The enthusiasm for the drone has Gavyn grinning faintly, and briefly. It is a good little machine to have around. "Are we authorized to come up with our own form of diversions," she asks, returning to seriousness. Sort of. "Say like.. airsoft or paintball? They won't kill, but the sting should be enough to get attention."
"Well, therein lies one of the central issues that I'm trying to get a solid answer on, Hannah. I'll make sure you have clear instructions as soon as I can wrap my head around them myself. As to our own diversions…." Elisabeth chuckles softly and shoves herself out of her chair, her exhaustion showing itself in the slightly tremble of her hands as she sets the beer bottle down. "Interesting idea. I'll think about that one. In the meantime…. I'm getting myself out of here so the three of you can let your hair down and shoot the shit without the boss listening." She smiles faintly, a hint of wistful in that statement. Much as she'd like to be 'one of the guys,' there's also a line that must be maintained. "Have fun, ladies. And if Ivanov comes looking, let him know I'll catch up with him."
She barely stops the wrinkle of her nose at the mention of socializing, it's not one of Kaitlyn's specialties. She's better then she was seven months ago, she no longer keeps a shot gun between her and everyone else, but…
"Alright, boss," Kait says, with a lazy salute at the retreating figure. Then she sort of falls silent, gaze slowly moving to the other two, a touch of uncertainty there. Her handlers at the Institute would probably put their hands on their hips with a huff.
Socialising – something Hannah enjoys, but isn’t always terribly good at. She offers her own salute to Elisabeth as she rises to leave, her posture stiff as she does. She doesn’t rise to her feet for it, at least, and afterwards even slouches a bit in her seat, seeming to relax a little.
Taking her beer bottle back in hand, she tips it back, several large gulping finishing off the bottle. “Mmm. Well then, I suppose we’re on our own, then.” She doesn’t make a move to get up, looking around, thinking for something to do. “I’m afraid the best I have to offer at the moment is a deck of cards, but a night of poker might not be too terrible before we ship off, hmm?”
Pushing her sunglasses more firmly into place, Gavyn looks to Kaitlyn and Hannah. The mention of cards produces a wince, and her ears turn a definite shade of red, the color bleeding down into her cheeks. "We could just… chat," she suggests instead, sounding lame.
"Chat?" The word is spoken bluntly, but laced with amusement. "Depends on what y'all want to chat about. I ain't got no sex life, Don't do any of that girly shit… no idea where any of my family is…" There is a deep shrug of Kait's shoulders and a smirk.
Shaking her head, Kaitlyn gives a huffed chuckle. "Sorry ladies… I ain't tryin' to push any y'all away, or nothin'. Just been awhile since I really had to be anythin' like social. Use to be just me and my dogs, I was happy like that."
“Ah, well…” Hannah’s fingers drum a few more times, looking over at Gavyn, her nose wrinkling a bit at Kaitlyn somewhat bristly response. “I am sure there’s something the three of us can talk about,” she says, running a hand back through her red hair. There’s a bit of a scoff, Hannah shaking her head at Kaitlyn. “You think I do all that girly shit? People used to be surprised I didn’t play football.”
Gavyn chuckles quietly at Hannah's response and grins at Kaitlyn. "I think we all lack in the girly shit," she says with a shake of her head. "I had two older brothers and my dad was career military." As if that should explain everything. She stands and slides back onto the couch, legs crossing at the ankles.
Kaitlyn eyes them both, with a bit of an amused look, and then chuckles, "Damn… They sure did find themselves an interestin' group of ladies." She shakes her head a bit and sliding her feet close, eyes going to the beer sitting on the table.
"So…" Unable to resist anymore, Kaitlyn pushes to her feet and makes a beeline to replace her beer. "My my parents were parents and my siblings were siblings… I wonder if they even know I'm alive." Turning back towards the other woman, she gives the cap of her beer a twist.
Kaitlyn isn’t the only one considering another beer, and with her retrieving another one, Hannah believes it time for her to do the same, not bothering to sit back down once she has it. Hannah opens her mouth to say something, looking towards Kaitlyn, but shuts it quickly, instead giving herself another moment of silence before she speaks again. “What sort of dogs is it that you have? Clearly they’re important to you.”
With the question posed, the cap is twisted off of Hannah’s beer, the solider taking a swig before she looks back at Gavyn. “You and I have more in common than I thought. Two sisters, a bother. Father owns a wine bottling business, and my mother was career military as well.”
Gavyn leans back on the couch, a small grin passing to Hannah. "Was your mom also army," she asks, interested and maybe even slightly excited. "Where all was she stationed?" Her eyes, though behind sunglasses, also flick to Kaitlyn and she looks concerned. Family's an important thing, in her mind, and she can't help but feel a little sympathetic.
"Had." Kaitlyn corrects roughly, but then falls silent as she takes a long pull of the beer. Brows furrow as the bottle lowers, as if she seems reluctant to share anything. "Just various strays I picked up, but they were my family for a long time." Her brows lift slightly, before moving to drop back into the chair with a sigh.
Of course, Kaitlyn doesn't seem too concerned about family. "Anyhow, that is water under the bridge."
"That's… a shame," Hannah replies after a moment, wrinkling her nose a bit. Truth be told, she's not sure what to say in response to that. Instead, she pushes off from where she had been leaning, her beer in hand. "Air Force," Hannah responds to Gavyn, grinning as she walks across tehr oom, back towards the pool tables. "Do you play pool at all, Kaitlyn? Gavyn? I'm not terribly good myself," as Kaitlyn had seen the day before, "but I think a short few games might do well. Loser…" she pauses, trying to think of a suitable bet. "Well, we can think of that later."
Gavyn's mouth opens to voice sentiments similar to Hannah's, then closes again when her very thoughts are spoken by the other woman. She looks at the soldier, curious, then regards Kaitlyn once more. A hand falls to her pocket as her phone vibrates, pulling it out to look at the screen. "I'll have to raincheck on that game," she says as she stands. "I need to take this call."
As feet carry her toward the door and the hallway beyond, she looks at Kaitlyn and Hannah in turn. "I'll catch up with you two later."
"Can't play worth a damn, but hey… if we are both shit." Kaitlyn, smirks a bit. She'd rather go scurry to her room and hide away, but… "What could be so hard right? Hit around some balls and sink them in the holes?"
On her feet again, Kaitlyn starts for the pool table, lifting her beer into the air. "Alright Emerson… it's you and me, lets see if we can sink some balls… ." Maybe not the sort of socializing they expected, but at least she's trying. She'll never be the woman she was before the Midtown explosion, that woman died the day she lost everything.
