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[visual] or [location: an empty stoop some blocks from the house]

Charlotte sat well back on the stoop, her head down as she lit what was clearly not her first cigarette. It was very early in the morning, before the fake sun was all the way up. She couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake John, so this is what she came up with. Sitting on someone else's steps smoking too many cigarettes. His cigarettes.

"I'm getting tired of this place, I realize. Not enough to do besides watch each other be miserable. Dig hasn't started, nothing else to do. I think I'm going to take up competitive drinking."

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Toby has to laugh a little at that.

"I think that might actually take off around here."

"We could set up a nice long table with comfortable chairs, pretty girls and boys serving. It could be fun." She flashed him a bit of a smile through the cigarette smoke that had built up in her little corner. Toby was one of few people who would get slightly more honest reactions from her. "Easy money puts my John as a front runner, though. Man has the liver of a true champion."

She sighed softly. "I'm a pure amateur. Only good enough to stay sober in social and business situations while appearing to drink everyone under the table." She shook her head. "Not that it isn't a hard won skill, mind you."

He smiles, amused by the thought. But while he doesn't mind a drink with friends, he's not really one for getting drunk. Being drunk means not being able to control the voices, and that's... well, that's bad.

"Yeah, you know, you might be onto something good here. Hey, if you need a ref or something..."

She leaned in a little as though she could look him over better that way. "Ref? I was sort of hoping you'd serve. Tight black pants, a little vest?" She surprised herself with how easy it was to picture. Maybe she needed a bit to drink.

Okay, he actually laughs, imagining it too - and oddly feeling a little twinge at missing Olivia. What would she say to that?

"Oh yeah? I'll think about it."

"So if I can get you into that, can I talk you into a tux?" Cordy's idea for a party had to be promoted, after all. If they had nothing else to do, maybe an endless string of complex parties could work. They could be like the old European royal houses and just try to out do the last party until they all exploded.

He raises an eyebrow, still smiling wryly. "Alright, where's this going, exactly?"

"Ask me the hard questions why don't you?" She rolled her eyes. "That is not my department. My department is getting the cute boys to agree to show up. So far, I have two." She groaned. That would never be enough. She needed to get on that. "Cordelia is in charge of the where, when and what we eat."

"I thought we were talking about competitive drinking. You and Cordelia are planning something?" Well, okay. But he's not sure how he feels about a tuxedo or tight pants. Nnnnot really his usual game as a paramedic living in the middle of Toronto. Something in the back of his mind tells him that Dean will laugh at him forever, too.

"So hypothetically... what would I get out of it besides you guys staring at me?"

She ticked things off on her fingers, her cigarette dangling dangerously. "Good food, good conversation, the women in slinky formal gowns, maybe dancing with the women in the slinky formal gowns...." She raised an eyebrow. "Or dancing with the men in the tuxedos. Which ever you prefer."

Toby ducks his head a little and rubs his brow with a finger, an unconscious uncomfortable act. He sniffs quietly in amusement.

Man, does he miss Olivia.

"Sounds like a pretty good deal."

"Yeah?" She thought so, but then she had that dress she wanted to wear. And she had a desperate need to not be where they were. "Good. You can help round up more men. They won't know what hit 'em."

She watched him for a moment. "How have you been, anyway?"

"As long as you don't mind me leaving out the tight pants part and playing up the 'meeting girls in slinky dresses' part." He smirks, good-natured joking in his eyes.

But when she asks that, his expression falters. Just for a second. Then he's back to smiling. "I've been good. You know, surviving. You?"

She sighed deeply, making a show of disappointment. "All right, but only if you include a real bow tie."

She took the time to light a new cigarette off the butt of the old before answering him. "Surviving, so far. It would go better if people didn't show up on our doorstep with guns."

Heh. "I meant when I mention it to them. Lotta guys, they don't have to know about the pants right away if the girl part sounds good enough." Or the bowtie, et cetera.

He watches her light another cigarette, figuratively biting his tongue about it. And anyway, the mention of guns is enough to distract him. "What? What do you mean, what happened?"

She smiled very faintly. "Whatever works. You never know. Someone might get turned on by the bow tie."

She took a very deep drag of the cigarette. "New arrival. Newish, anyway. She though John was someone else." She looked away. "I can't tell you how old that is getting, really. Incredibly old."

"... So she showed up with a gun." Huh, wow. Yikes. "Yeah, I can see how that might get old. You uh, convinced her otherwise, though, right?"

"Convinced might be a bit of an overstatement. Stopped was probably better. Either way, there were not shots fired." Charlotte shook her head. "I am awfully fond of that face, but it seems like there's an awful lot of it running around in the universe. This woman was from some space age future or something."

It was strange, because Toby had been thinking that he looked familiar, too. "That's pretty crazy."

Charlotte took a long drag, then stared at the cigarette. She was going to regret them later. "Worst part is, it didn't even phase me. She wasn't a vampire or some weird goddess bitch, so really it barely even rates."

Edited 2009-08-07 02:56 (UTC)

"Yeah, I bet nothing really comes close to that, huh," he says wryly. "Glad you guys are alright."

"Thank you."

She sighed softly. Toby and Ianto had seen her at her worst, so far, in Taxon. She seriously doubted she would have said most of this to anyone else. "I just wish we knew why."

"I was waiting for all that Ori nonsense to be resolved before we got cracking." River smiles sympathetically, tea cup in hand and unruly curls everywhere - well it is very early.

Edited 2009-08-07 14:31 (UTC)

Charlotte smiled back faintly, nodding a greeting. "Sorry. I didn't mean that as a criticism. I know things kind of just happen around here." She waved her cigarette, which was her breakfast. "When you're ready, I'm there."

"I didn't take it as one, but you're right - never a dull moment." River has toast, much healthier than cigarettes, which by the way, she is eyeing in a slightly patronising way.

"We should be on track for some time in the next few days, I'll keep you posted."

If Charlotte was really a smoker, or if she did this more than once a year, she'd have felt a little guilty when the good professor gave her the look. She wasn't a fan of the look. As it was, she knew it was better than stalking the house and glaring at kittens or picking a fight with John. "I appreciate that. It would be good to have something not involving mistaken identities or pain."

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