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."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel tried hard not to smirk at the picture of Mr. Parker. "Oops?" she said mildly.

"I'm glad to hear your education in Fandom is being put to good use," she said. "Moscow would be interesting to see. It sounds like you made an impression." Isabel bit her lip before asking, "Why?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker took the phone back, and fiddled with the settings. "I get to stay here. I don't have to go to Rio." She looked up. "But I think it has less to do with how well I translated, or even how well the survival weekend went, than it does with guilt. I had to ask my father some questions before I left and he wasn't--" She paused. "I think I hurt him. I'm not sure. But I think he feels guilty, and is letting me stay, because of that."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yay for staying," Isabel said quietly. "What kind of questions? Or do you not feel like talking about it?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker looked at Isabel, wondering if it was a good idea to tell her or not. Hopefully it wouldn't freak her out too much. "Actually, by the standards of my family, this bit is pretty normal." She flipped the phone shut. "Angelo sent me a copy of my birth video last week. I had a twin, but he didn't make it." She sighed heavily. "Mom and Dad never told me."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Parker, I'm sorry," Isabel said simply. "Maybe they didn't know how? I mean, you were only a little kid. And then your mom....How could your dad possibly explain that?" She blinked, surprised that she was trying to justify Mr. Parker's actions.

[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.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. But it's been seventeen years, and you'd think they'd have found *some* way, somehow, and it's just so familiar, Daddy avoiding things...." She shook her head. "He said it was a mistake not to tell me. I think that's the first time he's admitted to making one. Ever."

[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]

"I'm sure it's upsetting to him as well. And it was easier to just repress and deal with it on his own then tell you and have to deal with you being upset as well" she replied. "But he knows he was wrong. At least that's a start."