Room 406, Late Afternoon, early evening

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel's spent the afternoon in the common room kitchen handwavily cooking dinner. Now everything is carefully arranged on covered plates, ready to be reheated at the appropriate time. There's a blanket and candles set up picnic style on the floor. But for now, Isabel's playing solitare on the laptop while she waits for Greg to arrive.

When her email blinked, she smiled when she saw the message.


[Door's closed, but feel free to knock!]

Comments

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker came by after visiting Lorelai, and knocked on Isabel's door. "Hey, Intergalactic Princess. Open up. This is the Aesthetics Police!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Door's open," Isabel called as she put the laptop aside. "Are you here to award me for my patriotic paint job?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker was trying to glare, without much success. "That, and read you the riot act--" She paused, looking around. "Wait. What ritual did I just interrupt? This looks vaguely rustic."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel hopped on the chance to distract Parker from any riot act reading. "I made dinner for Greg and I. A nice little indoor picnic means we don't have to worry about the weather."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker grinned. "Oh, that is too cute. Really. Not to mention? Handy. Being indoors is a lot easier for other activities." She paused. "Wait. I was ranting."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Isabel agreed. "Like movie watching. Or playing cards." She frowned, "No ranting! It causes wrinkles!"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I'll moisturized extra tonight. And you know that wasn't what I was referring to. Watching movies, ha." Parker smirked. "Only when it leads to other fun. And hey! You took a huge risk! A really big one! Who's idea was it, yours or Jarod's, damnit?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"No test drives are planned for the immediate future," Isabel said primly. "I've downloaded Apocolypse Armageddon. I figure we can mock the bad science, since there's so much of it in that movie even I can tell."

She sighed, "It was my idea. I went to ask Jarrod a few questions and the next thing I know, he was insisting on going. He wouldn't listen to reason."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's a great one for mocking. Plus? Ben whatshisname shirtless a lot of the time. No bad there."

Parker sighed, then glared again, half-heartedly, this time. "He *should* have talked you out of it, speaking of reason. He should have locked you in the trunk of whoever's car you borrowed to keep it from happening. Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have been in, if you'd been caught? Being arrested would've been the happy outcome." She fiddled with her camera phone. "That said...."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Nope, no bad at all. Not that I'll mention that part," she grinned.

"It was Rory's car. And since it can fly and do five hundred miles an hour, I figured we were covered in case we needed to make a quick getaway." Isabel looked sheepish. "I know it wasn't the smartest thing we could have done. But it made you laugh didn't it? And that's what was important."

"You have pictures?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker's lips were twitching. "Just please, don't ever do it again. Because it cracked me the hell up, but it would be a lot less funny if either of you two ended up in trouble for it." Smirking, she pulled out her camera phone. "Your handiwork, I believe?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I promise," Isabel replied. "Once is fun, twice starts pushing the line towards stupid in situations like this." She took the phone and grinned. "Oh that's perfect! I knew in my head what it was going to look like but since we couldn't turn on the lights, I couldn't see it."

"How was the weekend otherwise?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"It was gorgeous. And you should have seen my father's face! Wait, let me--" Parker flipped through a couple pictures, then held up an image of her father, looking very, very peeved. "He hasn't been that mad since the stockmarket took a dive on one of the Centre projects last year. It was *wonderful*."

"The weekend, otherwise, was-- interesting. The junior execs were subdued and suppressed as effectively as if I'd put them in bags and sat on them." Parker smirked. "Mr. Valentin invited me to Moscow next year, to see the holdings there." She paused. "And I'm not speaking to my father right now."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

After Parker left, Greg bounded up to Isabel's room and knocked with one hand, the other clutching something behind his back.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"It's open," Isabel called out as she scrolled through the playlist on her iPod.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg snuck in, keeping his hand behind his back. "Hi!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Hi yourself," she smiled as she placed the iPod in the speakers and started it. "Long time no see."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg moved behind her and pulled his hand out from behind his back to present a small bunch of wildflowers (http://www.hatcherflorist.com/ver6/usrimage/small%20bouquet%20asfb.jpg) in front of her. "Brought you these."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel took the flowers and sniffed at them delicately before turning around and thanking Greg properly. "They're beautiful," she said as she hugged him.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"And they're not at all because I ran around diving into bushes today and don't want you to be upset with me," Greg told her, kissing her cheek.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I heard about that," she admitted. "But I'm not upset in the least. Impressed is more like it. Making you bait was inspired revenge."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"I managed to escape from almost everyone," he told her proudly.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Congratulations," Isabel smiled. "I'm impressed. Does that mean you worked up an appetite?"

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Yes, yes I did," Greg said happily. He glanced at the floor. "You have candles!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I do," she said seriously. "We have to be prepared for any random power outages."