2013.10.16 - The Need for Better Notes

So, Jocelyn was in town for at least a few days, and she wanted to see one of her friends. No, she couldn't tell Ben what she was up to, but she suspected he could understand it. Or at least she hoped so. He could just be pissed at her, Jocelyn wasn't really sure. Regardless, she'd wandered over to the Terminal and nobody was in at the time, so she sent Ben a simple text through the YAL app.

In town for a bit. Lunch at Terminal?

She'd brought some italian food from one of the local restaurants and brought it down, because she was hungry, and was waiting for either a reply from Ben or for him to just show up. One of the two. Jocelyn wasn't sure which would actually happen first.

Seeing who sent the text made Ben put off work. He rushed down to central park and was in such a hurry he forgot to swap out his work coat for the hoodie. Walking down to the terminal Ben was dressed in the white lab coat with the "Baxter Building" logo above the right breast pocket, complete with nametag that bore Ben's picture and name. The blue jeans and simple black shirt was something more on par with what he usually wore. And of course everything was topped off with the black vans.

His brown hair showed in the lights within the terminal. "I don't know if I should hug you or hit you," Ben declared upon seeing Jocelyn, "But the food is a start," his tone showed that Jocelyn was welcomed but he had a bone to pick with her. Opening his arms Ben hugged Jocelyn, "How ya been?"

The woman returns the hug easily enough. "Well, sit down and have some lunch before you decide. I'm only back in town for a few days, but figured I should at least stop in, or you really might have cause to hit me," Jocelyn says. Because if Ben found out she'd been back for a few days and not at least checked in, she knew he'd definitely have cause to hit her. "Besides, you'd never hit a lady". Not that she couldn't take it.

"I'm doing alright. Keeping busy. How about you?" Jocelyn asks. There were details that she couldn't share, which was frustrating, but there wasn't a lot that she could do about that.

"I wouldn't hit a lady, you're right," Ben admitted before picking at a classic dish of chicken alfredo. "I will hit a friend when they're being stupid though," he winked at Jocelyn. Jocelyn asked a loaded question when she inquired about how he was doing. Ben breathed out, "I miss my friends. A few of you scatted when you decided to run. It was like you rooted through my cellphone and called a bunch of people, invited them to wherever you went and they decided to follow suit. Jubilee and I are good, but she keep getting busy with school. It has me worried to be honest. Worried about another friend's pill addiction," Ben omitted Kiden Nixon's name on that one, "And just feeling kind of lost. So it's been rainbows and gum drops since you left," a grim smile came across his face for a second. He sighed, "Trying to stay positive but running out of reasons hon."

"Well, I got pulled away on an assignment, and that's not something I can share the details on". Jocelyn shrugs a little bit at that. "It's like signing an NDA, you know? You want to talk about what you're seeing and doing, but you can't do it". Jocelyn knew that Ben would at least understand the NDA reference. "I'm sorry about the crap timing though," she admits. "For what it's worth, I suspect that I should be back fairly soon," she tells Ben. Things were moving along in Genosha pretty well.

"Jubes means well, but she's terrible at things like time management, and so she gets herself horribly behind for stretches of time," Jocelyn says. She's working on some chicken parmesan herself. "We all go through stretches where important parts of our lives suck though. You'll get through it, and things will improve, Ben". Of that, Jocelyn had little doubt.

Nodding to the NDA part Ben understood that completely. Many of the Baxter projects had NDAs. "You could have written a better note then," Jocelyn's note in Ben's mind was pretty crappy. He wasn't sure if it was a mission, if there was a guy she dragged to Vegas for a shotgun wedding, illegal problems, etc. It didn't say much beyond she was leaving and not to follow. "I know it sucks but I'll be happy to see you face about. You've been missed," he admitted.

"With Jubes it just happens a lot and school is important, but a guy can get lonely y'know?" And Ben was lonely until a recent trip at the mall fixed things. Still he was wondering if the shoe would drop again. Cutting at some of the chicken Ben ate a bite and looked at his friend, "Plans when you come back?" he asked after his food was swallowed.

"College in a few months. I kind of ended up missing out on the whole fall semester thing," Jocelyn offers. "Other than that, just kind of taking it as it comes," the girl offers. She didn't have much in the way of specific plans. "Pick up on things that I haven't been able to for awhile. Kicking your ass in the mornings for starters," Jocelyn offers to Ben with a small grin. "Getting back into the flow of things really, though, that's mostly the plan I've got," the teenager tells Ben as she takes another bite.

"I'll admit I'm glad to be missed a bit. It would suck to disappear and not have anybody notice a thing," the woman tells Ben before she takes a drink of water. "How about you? Got any plans in the works?" Jocelyn asks.

"Avoid chemical baths due to the latest NDA projects I'm working on. Seriously I would take showering in the boys locker room in High School over that any day of the week," he said thinking on what his plans would be. "And you can try to kick my ass in the mornings," Ben gave a thoughtful look and tapped his chin. "Other than that it is going to be one day at a time, one foot forward and we see how it all goes," he shrugs and takes another bite of the chicken alfredo. Ben really didn't have much of a plan these days.

"Something tells me I'd feel much the same about that. Mostly because chemical baths just sounds...really nasty," Jocelyn tells Ben with a shake of her head. That just sounded absolutely nasty. "If I end up being around long enough, I'll drag you out sometime when you're not working. Find ourselves something to do in the city. I'm sure we could find something," Jocelyn tells Ben. She wasn't used to seeing Ben be as down as he seemed. It was a little worriesome to the girl.

Jocelyn takes another bite of her meal. "Oh, I can tell you my powers seem to be acting a little weird again," Jocelyn comments to Ben. "Nothing bad, but like they've grown of their own accord. I'm still working out some bits of it. Like I can shift my vision around now when I want to," she explains to Ben.

Jocelyn's comments about going out made Ben smile. He was going to say something when the talk of her powers derailed him. His brown eyes looked at her, "How are they growing? What are they doing?" There was many reasons for this. Powers could have evolved, just like any genetic. However, many there was a catalyst to it. Again fear consumed him as he worried where Jocelyn and what she had been doing this time. However, he kept those concerns close to the chest.

"Well, capacity for energy absorption. I can hold more now," Jocelyn tells Ben. "And I can filter my vision among energy types. For example, if I only want to see thermal and psionic energy, I can adjust my vision to only see that. If I want to see all of it, I can do that. If I want to see 'normally', I can actually do that now," Jocelyn explains. "Though it's really weird to go back to that, after seeing everything for so long, you know? Feels like I'm blind when I do that".

There were other things, but Jocelyn didn't actually know them yet, as she hadn't experienced them. She had to do a little bit of testing, though she had some ideas. She just hadn't had the chance to do so yet.

"This may sound scary but you should come into the Baxter Building for tests," Ben suggested. His brown eyes watched her, "Nothing bad. I'm just thinking running some visual scans to see the levels you're doing now and maybe see if it's due to stress or could possible harm you," he tries to ease and ate some of his meal. Breathing hard his mind raced with ways to help her out but they all required readings from the testing.

"Well, I've had my mutant powers increase before. It wouldn't be the first time," Jocelyn says. "But if you think it's necessary". She shrugs a little. Jocelyn wasn't that worried about Ben doing those tests. Jocelyn seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing. "Does it have a way to determine powers themselves, or do you have to know what you're looking for?" Jocelyn questions.

"We'd run some spectral readings. See how much energy you output. Stuff that's been used for the Human Torch just calibrated to you," Ben said thinking on it. The fact she had done it once really got the gears going. When would her evolutions stop was the big question? Ripping him away from that question was the noise of his phone. He looked at it, a text from Dr. Richards. "The Boss man needs me gorgeous." He rose up and hugged her again, "Thank you for this and don't stay away too long. I missed you, probably more than I'll admit." A smile was on his face for a moment before he started to rush off.

The girl nods to that. "Doesn't seem too out there there," she says. Jocelyn notes the phone buzzing Ben and she grins. "Duty calls and all that". She returns the hug. "Not a problem. I'll see you later," she tells Ben. "And leave you a better note when I have to cut out again," she assures the guy. She wasn't good at good-byes, even temporary ones.