(no subject)

[takingthechance]

The front door opens, and a young woman in uniform steps briskly through. The neat olive dress uniform doesn't do much to hide the coltishness of her frame, accentuated by how she stutter-steps to a stop when the room she walks into isn't the Hastings police department, her pack with the heavy helmet tied over the top banging against her hip at the sudden stop.

Comments

[clevermonkeyhands]

"Yeah," Fitz says, staring at the waiters. He's pretty sure the rats are waiters.

Can he mention this without drawing her attention to it -- no.

"I'll, um, go ask at the bar."

He gets up again, and squares his shoulders before walking to the bar, folder tucked under his left elbow. He dribbles his fingers on the bar surface.

Between one drum-beat and the next, what's under his fingers is no longer wood but paper.

Fitz blinks down. It's a package of notes, with Jemma's writing, all on top of a notebook.

He clears his throat, on scanning the first note. "Uh, some tea and brandy, thanks," he says, and picks it up from the bar as it arrives.

He sets it down in front of the woman, but abruptly goes back to reading the pile of notes he's accumulated.

[takingthechance]

She drinks most of the brandy neat, before adding what's left to her tea - her nerves need the steadying effect. All she can think about is her mum and dad - mum will probably be too ill to move to shelter, and her dad... well, as the vicar, there's always the chance he won't look to his own safety first.

Silent tears roll down her cheeks as she sips her tea.

Almost silent, anyway. There's some sniffling.

[clevermonkeyhands]

Fitz is in the middle of one of his notes when the noise finally breaks through his attention.

(It takes... awhile.)

"Why are you -- oh, god, sorry, I was going to explain -- I know you think I'm crazy, but hear me out, okay?"

[takingthechance]

There's a mixture of affront and consternation in her expression, but she settles for nodding, both hands wrapped around her cup of tea.

[clevermonkeyhands]

"I'm Dr. Leo Fitz," he starts with, because credentials show authority, right? Right. "I work with a brilliant scientist named Dr. Simmons, who's been here already, since she left me all these notes at the counter -- anyway, this isn't Hastings, it's a place called Milliways, which is kind of -- so you know how you can get an oxbow lake, where it's separate from the river it used to be a part of, but sitting right next to it? It's like that, except with reality.

So that's not your home being bombed, it's just--" ummm "-- a stellar phenomenon."

[takingthechance]

She blinks at him, bemusedly.

"Those are stars? Stars have never looked like that." She protests, but she'll freely admit she likes the idea of being somewhere inexplicable to the idea of being in an invaded England.

[clevermonkeyhands]

"Collections of stars. You know about galaxies, right? Like, ... if stars could have cities, they'd live in galaxies, and usually we can't see them really well but it's very dark outside the window so -- so we can," he ends, sort of unwound.

He wishes he was into astronomy. This would probably be really cool.

As it is, he can't seem to get his mind around what has happened enough to actually get excited.

[takingthechance]

Stars in cities? It's clear that particular concept doesn't translate, as she frowns at him in confusion. All she got out of that was the mental image of a little vicar star in his little star church, maybe a little star pub with a star barman serving up star beer...

It's a little ridiculous.