(no subject)

[flip_the_lights]

They found another one of the Cortexiphan kids this week: Simon Phillips. He wasn't in Olivia's "class"; he took part in the Wooster trials several states over, and was kicked out after his primary skill turned toward mind reading.

Olivia was the first person he'd met in twenty years who could enter his house and not start a cacophony. Two decades of uncontrolled telepathy, with the Cortexiphan in Olivia's body -- how it triggered a barrier to her thoughts, one Simon couldn't cross for whatever reason -- offering him the only relief.

Two decades of living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, because otherwise, he'd go completely insane from the noise.

Now, she's at a table with a glass of whiskey, studying it with more care than strictly necessary. Her problem, she thinks, has always been finding the so-called "on" switch -- never in turning it off again. Maybe it's time to explore the benefits of both.

Comments

[flip_the_lights]

She arches an eyebrow in reply.

Serene, "I'll have the itinerary on your desk by the end of the month."

[nerves_of_ice]

Wide-eyed, he responds,

"I have a desk?"

[flip_the_lights]

A beat.

Then, teasing: "I'll have a desk for you by the end of the month, too."

[nerves_of_ice]

Alex laughs.

"You know, somehow I can see you getting whatever you put your mind to."

[flip_the_lights]

"Not everything," she allows.

(If that were true -- well. No need to dwell, and certainly no need to elaborate for Alex.)

"Not that it stops me."

[nerves_of_ice]

"Stubborn."

From the tone of his voice, he approves.

[flip_the_lights]

Olivia chuckles, and thinks, Stubborn enough, I hope.

Maybe it won't be a baseball game; maybe it'll be something else, though. (Maybe it won't be anything at all.) Either way, she's not willing to back out until she cracks the puzzle.

Hopefully -- if Bucky's still somewhere in there -- he'll approve, too.