One day we will run out of tomorrows

[chiefdefense]

WHO: Mia Fey and Godot
WHERE: Public Defenders' Office
WHEN: Lunch time, March 18.
WHAT: Mia drops by her roomate's office to take him out to lunch and runs into a familiar face and an unexpected blast from the past.
WARNINGS: Angst. Coffee Metaphors. Manpain blacker than a cup of Godot blend #101.

There was nothing more buoying to the spirits than to be told by a doctor that you were not about to keel over and die from a serious head injury. Having had that dubious pleasure once in her lifetime- her first lifetime to be exact- Mia wasn't in any rush to repeat the experience. So with her doctor's note signed and with her papers dropped off at the personnel office of the university, Mia was quite ready to proclaim her morning a productive one and was feeling in the mood to celebrate.

After taking a break to seek out some recommendations for a place to eat, Mia made her way over to Phoenix's workplace to surprise her former protege with a thank you lunch. He'd been invaluable and more than attentive while she'd been feeling less than stellar, and it was only right that she treat him. Besides, she was long overdue shouting him for the burgers she had promised as a celebration of his first case.

Hopefully he wouldn't mind them being a decade overdue.

Ten minutes later, she arrived at the Public Defenders' Office and followed the directions given to her by the lady at the front desk (who reminded her vaguely of Wendy Oldbag for some reason), she found herself at the door to the office Phoenix was working in and knocked on the door.

Comments

[chiefdefense]

Being pushed away was like being smacked in the face. And then he called her 'Madame Fey.'

"It's good to see you again, Madame Fey."

It had been years, but still the memory of Dahlia Hawthorne's too sweet, syrupy voice on the stand had the ability bring the bile to the back of her throat.

"Mia," she said stubbornly, squaring her shoulders as she stared him down. "Call me Mia. Or Kitten. Call me anything except that."

If he was going to be difficult then he would have a fight on his hands.

"And stop calling yourself a dead man or I swear to god Diego-" she didn't even know what to threaten him with, it shook her so badly. "Because we've been through this, and you are anything but dead."

[beenwaitinglong]

"Ms. Fey, then."

He could feel his pulse in his ears, pounding harder because he knew he had no choice but to push things further, now.

"And there are many different kinds of death," he said, turning away again. This time he stepped over to his desk and began to fiddle with a stack of papers there. "There is no doubt in my mind that the man you knew is dead, in some sense of the phrase."

He exhaled slowly, and like a switch was turned, his voice was steel and stoic again.

"Like I said, I'm sorry to disappoint you. But it's time we meet properly. My name... is Godot."

[chiefdefense]

"Oh for god's sake- Look, we've seen each other naked. There was a time for Ms. Fey and introductions and we are way beyond that. Why are you acting like this?"

She walked over to his desk and slammed her palms on top of the papers he was distracting himself with.

"Your name is Diego Armando, you drink more coffee than any normal person should, you like jazz, your favorite color's red, you took me out for burgers the day of Terry Fawles' funeral and that was the day I began to fall for you. You were poisoned on the 27th August 2012-" Her voice cracked for a moment but she didn't let it dissuade her. "And for thirty minutes I felt like I had died because they told me you had. For two weeks I slept in a chair by your bed because I was terrified I'd miss you waking up or you'd die and I wouldn't get you back. So yes, there might be many different types of death but the one that really puts a stop to everything doesn't apply to either of us right now."

[beenwaitinglong]

He should have known better than to expect her to accept it. He should have known she would fight, and fiercely-- Kitten always had claws, in the courtroom or otherwise, and he should have known she would turn them on him if he tried to pull away from her like he did everyone else.

He didn't look up at her, face tilted downward at her hands atop his papers. Every word stung, making him feel sick inside, like a suppressed memory struggling to come back to the surface. Hearing about her waiting by his bedside sent a shiver through him, and in Mia's sight only, the chains of his psychelocks trembled and rattled, then tightened.

"I can't be him anymore," he said simply, after a long silence. "I can't."

He abruptly turned then, stepping out from behind his desk and heading for the door. Running? Perhaps. But he couldn't stand here and take her disappointment any longer.

[chiefdefense]

"Why?"

What was he doing? Mia wasn't content to let it go that easily, especially having seen the chains that held the truth in place rattling under her assertions. It had been a long time since she'd had to deal with a psychelock, but that didn't mean she was about to give up on the first attempt.

"You're not making any sense."

She waited at the desk and turned as he started heading towards the door. Why would he run from her, after all this time?

"You're you, it doesn't matter what color your hair is or what you go by in a courtroom, you're still you and you're still here. Why is that so hard for you to see?"

[beenwaitinglong]

He grabbed his briefcase from the hook beside the door. There were papers he probably needed at his desk, but like hell was he going to stick around for them. He couldn't bear to look back at her again, not now, not when he felt rattled from the inside out, like the careful mask he wore had been cut straight through to the core.

All he could do was shake his head as she spoke to him, and finally, answer her one more time with a voice that sounded like he was trying very hard to hold it in check.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you. But there are some things better left in the past, to live on in untainted memories," he said. "Diego Armando is one of them."

With that, he hurriedly stepped out into the hall and down the corridor to the elevator and out.

[chiefdefense]

Mia just stood blinking in stunned silence as he left and didn't know whether to be angry or upset. Part of her wanted to knock all his paperwork off his desk in spite, but she reminded herself that she wasn't a bratty kid anymore and that was hardly going to help her case.

Besides, it would be best if only one party acted like a brat in this.

She had more dignity than to run out after him, begging and pleading for him to reconsider, even though she wanted to desperately. After five years of waiting to see him again, how could he just walk out of there and turn his back on her as though what she was saying didn't matter?

Her hands were shaking she was so upset.

Without a second thought, she grabbed the nearest pen- a red marker- from the pot on the desk, and scrawled a note on a piece of blank paper close to hand.

Diego,
The past hasn't been too great to us, we both know that. When you're ready to talk to me in the present, I'll be here.
Don't keep me waiting too long.
All my love,
Mia


She took a deep breath and spent a moment composing herself, trying not to let the smell of coffee get to her the way that it had a strange habit of doing, and with one last look at the note on his desk, she left the office in search of Phoenix, even though her appetite seemed to have left her.