MM: get what you see

[isaysimplewords]

Today, Cal is vomit-free.

He has a small scarlet feather in his hair, though. He hasn't noticed it yet.

He's at a table with a cup of coffee, half-watching the crowd.

Comments

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Don't I know it."

[isaysimplewords]

"I'm starting to think my doubles have all the luck."

Five minutes into this conversation and it's already obvious that this Mrs Chandler has a very different kind of relationship with her husband. The kind where they won't still be virtual strangers almost twenty years in, for a start.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Luck? I'll have you know I spent four years working for this," she says, brushing her fingers over her ring. "Worth every second. Including all the hair dye."

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Cal smiles wryly.

"So I married my mother."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"That joke has not gotten any less awful since the first time you made it, Oedipus."

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The smile turns into a grin.

"I notice you didn't say 'no.'"

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"Please. I'm not your mother. I have a lot more fun."

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"You know what," Cal says, "that I believe."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

She's relaxed enough to add, without completely thinking through the consequences, "And Violet Chandler set her sights too low."

[isaysimplewords]

. . . Huh.

"That's not something many people would say."

Maybe James has political aspirations of her own? He can't be sure what year she's from, but whenever it is, it would be more plausible for her to enter politics than it would have been for his mother at the same age.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

Lightly: "Not many people are me."

She's used to a Cal who knows all her tells; she expects him to see she's hiding something, and that shows.

[isaysimplewords]

Cal can see it. He has a talent, from years in politics, for reading a certain sort of person, and right now James is most definitely being that sort of person.

"I'm sure that's true," he says. "So fill me in."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"That's my Cal," she murmurs, with a wry twist of a smile.

As though it explains everything that needs explaining: "James Moriarty."

[isaysimplewords]

Cal thinks of Sherlock, and how thoroughly he had taken on that identity. He frowns slightly.

"So I'm guessing you don't stick to organizing the charity balls."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Not really, no."

She shrugs.

"We've talked about it."

[isaysimplewords]

Cal sips from his coffee mug, cradling it carefully in his hands when he lowers it again.

"And what do those conversations sound like?"

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Full of compromises."

[isaysimplewords]

Yeah. He should have figured that.

"That sounds more like it," he murmurs.

(In his family, the definition of "compromise" was "Cal keeps his mouth shut and likes it.")

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

She frowns a question at him.

Apparently that wasn't the expected reaction.



It clicks a heartbeat later. "Not that kind of compromise, Cal. The kind where I actually listen to you."

[isaysimplewords]

Dry:

"I don't think I've heard of that kind before."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Am I going to have to go through the whole first year of our marriage all over again? Hi, I'm James Moriarty. I run every major criminal organization with a branch in New York State. That's not as funny as you think it is. Yes, you can call me Jamie, I won't shoot you for it. No, I've never shot anybody else for it. Yes, if you have a problem with what I'm doing, you can talk to me." Beat. "And I don't care how many affairs you have as long as you tell me their names. I like to know what you're up to."

[isaysimplewords]

". . . what?"

Hey, that is a lot of information all at once, and she dropped the biggest bomb first.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Which parts do you need me to repeat?"

[isaysimplewords]

". . . Criminal organization?"

Which, okay, Moriarty, identity, etc, but that had not been the direction Cal was thinking in. He'd been thinking more along the lines of corrupt politician. Why else would she marry a Chandler?

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"...What were you thinking before?"