2658/In everything, balance

In everything, balance
Date of Scene:	28 July 2020
Location:	Stark Tower: Pepper's Office
Synopsis:	Pepper and Caitlin speak, and could solve the world's problems if given the chance.
Cast of Characters:	Pepper Potts, Caitlin Fairchild

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Pepper Potts has posed:
Working into the evening; if it's not one thing, it's certainly another.

World needs saving? Nights.

Sudden emergency meetings with the city and state? Nights.

Working with other stakeholders to make sure relief efforts make it through to where they need to go?

Nights.

Phone calls have been made all through the night to various agencies, to various people, up and down her electronic rolodex. Emails have been sent, and now, when everything seems to be quietening down for the night, Pep's got her business suit jacket off and hanging on the back of her chair, sensible heels kicked off under her desk, and her hair is down from the pony tail. Sitting back in her seat, she rolls her head back to look at the ceiling before digging fingers into tired eyes.

"Homer?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"-I am here, Miss Potts,-" comes Homer's kindly voice. The disembodied AI flickers a little ring of light on her desk to indicate it's actively listneing to her. "-It is ten-twenty-four PM. You have five minutes until your next appointment. Shall I summon Dr. Fairchild or would you prefer to reschedule her?-"

Pepper Potts has posed:
It's taking a little longer for Pep to get used to Homer. She's probably hurt his AI feelings a lot in the last few months comparing him to Jarvis, but he really is growing on her. The voice in the silence of the ever present AI is actually comforting, when all she has for company right now is the lights of the Stark Industries secondary 'campus' behind her, and the city lights. Even the ever-on television is turned off, lending an almost eerie silence to a usually busy office.

"Yes, yes please, Homer. Thank you."

She leans forward in her chair again, her feet slipping back into her pumps as she prepares for the chat. She trusts Dr Fairchild, which is why it is just a 'chat'. Things need to be solved so Tony et al. can do what they need to do, that is, rescue people and the city. And, on the larger scale, Genosha.
Now, her hands are set before her, fingers entwined, expectant.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's usually well-dressed while in the lab. Skirt, blouse, and as often as possible, a clean labcoat. When she comes into Pepper's office, she's got one welding glove on and her hair's pinned back in a messy ponytail with two pencils and some kind of thermal probe. Her t-shirt's pockmarked with pinhead-sized holes from whatever she was working on, there's grime on her cheekbone, and a distinctly fragrant scent of ozone instead of her usual perfume. Her lab coat looks like it caught fire at one point.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Pepper," Caitlin says with a frantic tone. She shuffles into the office in low tennis shoes and sits down before she realizes there's still a wrench in her hand. It takes a few seconds to sort out where to put the tool and the glove, and they both end up in her lap. "We're working on the power source array and it got to a kinda fragile point. I shoulda called up-- totally lost track of time. I hope I didn't put you off," she frets.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The moment the door opens, there's first that expression of expectation followed by a slightly amused smile. The smudge is stock and trade of those who work in the labs here. No work here is completely clean, unless one is in administration, and even then? Nothing is guaranteed.

"Oh, Caitlin," Pepper begins, "it's.. okay." There are so few people in this Tower that she's comfortable with being called by her nickname, but Dr. Caitlin Fairchild is one of them. "You can't work here and not understand that it's just a matter of herding cats. You're just a slightly easier feline to catch." Beat, and she smiles with humor to take whatever sting may be there, "And that's not a bad thing."

Now, the woman rises from her seat and instead of gesturing towards a chair on the opposite side of her desk, she walks around to her chairs in the seating room, "Come, sit down with me please?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
She's down, she's up, and Caitlin's following Pepper obligingly. It's then that she realizes she's still in her lab coat, and pauses to hang it up. And then realizes she's in her casual day-clothing, and she pinks a bit.

"Oops. I... we rolled past dinner and it was a lotta dirty work so I told everyone to change if they needed to," Caitlin explains. "Seemed like working in jeans and tennis shoes would be better for morale." The heroine waits for Pepper to pick a chair, then looks for the sturdiest looking one and settles gingerly down into it, and gives Pepper an eager and expectant look. "So, what's up?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper waits for Cait to take a seat before she does, and once down, slides her shoes off again. She's casual business as well, just as evidenced as she prefers being barefooted in her own office. Ankles cross, and she looks sympathetic when work is mentioned that moves quickly past dinner. "Did you eat?" While not a casual question, it's obviously not the reason she'd asked for the talk.

With a deep breath, Pepper's hands settle into her lap, fingers entwined. "That meeting," she begins, and she shakes her head, "tell me what we could have done to avoid that." There's no blame, no fingerpointing, no obvious anger directed. Just.. confusion. "Was there something we were missing?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I keep protein shakes in my office," Caitlin promises Pepper, and leans forward to pay attention to the question. When it concludes, she falls thoughtfully silent for a few seconds.

"I... okay," Caitlin says, pushing her hair back behind her ears. She sits a little straighter, posture becoming more focused. "Speaking as a -Titan-?" she inquires, peering at Pepper for confirmation. When it's given, she exhales and focuses. "To be honest, I think everyone at the table was running on adrenaline and too-little sleep," she explains. "Dr. Pym's brilliant, but he's not... um. The most... stable person, from what my friends in the Avenger's told me," she says, cautiously. "And Mr. Stark's terrific but he tends to want to be the Guy in Charge. Princess Lorna, I mean, she's-- well, Queen Lorna," she amends. "She's got a right to want to protect her people and I think that led to it." Her face darkens. "We had someone on our side of the table shooting their mouth off, which didn't help."

Caitlin lifts both hands up. "Look, I know the Avengers are older than us. And I mean, obviously, the resources they've got--" she gestures. "If we had them, I don't know if I'd be working here. I know how smart Mr. Stark and Dr. Pym are."

"But I think-- what really chapped Donna, if I know her like I think I do, was that she's a leader. She's trained to be a princess and a war commander for an island of immortals, for her whole life. The Titans have been doing the cape thing for most of nien years now."

She makes a frustrated, back and forth gesture. "I-- golly, this is gonna sound dumb, but I think everyone was mostly just disagreeing on what they all agreed on," she concludes. "And everyone's got a deep personal stake in making sure this goes right. I think that makes everyone feel a little more... I'unno. On edge."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper presses her lips together and listens, watching posture, manner and mien, searching for those tells that have benefitted her so well up to this point. She nods appropriately in spots, though not necessarily out of agreement, but tacit understanding. She lets things mull around her head before she speaks again, her own posture still 'open'; she's leaning towards Cait and the conversation.

"So," and Pepper begins to slowly recap, though perhaps not exactly the way Caitlin had explained it. "Dr Pym wasn't given the chance to be properly heard because of hearsay," and she holds up a hand, "from what my friends in the Avengers told me'." She looks at the woman, green eyes searching, "Is that fair?"

To the next, there's that.. smile as Tony's named, but sure enough, the 'always wants to be in charge' doesn't surprise her. "He set up the meeting in order to organize, to try and get everyone on the same page. I think there are some misunderstandings there, too." But, Pepper's pretty sure that any defense she makes for Tony will be 'Oh, she's Tony's PA, of course she'll say that!' tucked in.

"Ms Dane, I think, spoke from frustration. Apparently up to then, she hadn't a clue where anyone was. I wasn't at the rescue," but she was down and on the phone with the city and state as a stakeholder in Emergency Management. It was confusing there! "But I can't imagine that it was anything but confusing."

There's a hint of a smile, and her brows rise, with her tones turning lightly teasing, "She needs to be the Guy in Charge?"

Still, Pepper shakes her head lightly, her red hair falling on her shoulders, "I think that everyone at that meeting honestly wants the safe return. Everyone. But everyone also needs to put aside their perceptions and actually work together." It's not a command, it's not even a snark. It's.. honest.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"...Pepper," Caitlin says, gently, and leans forward. It's a quiet, personal entreaty, not a professional one. "If there's any doubt about it, I'll say it real plain: the Titans are willing to do, whatever it takes, to get everyone in those bottles back to where they belong. "And as much as I admire Mr. Stark as a engineer and a businessman-- he's not my leader. He's my boss, and I respect him a lot, but Donna's my friend. My best friend. And she leads the Titans. I know it didn't earn me any points with Mr. Stark throwing in behind her. That doesn't mean that we'd ever put our pride ahead of getting the job done, whatever it takes."

She tucks her hair behind her ears, exhales wearily. "Some people underestimate us 'cause we were all kids when we got started, but none of us have been kids since Doomsday attacked." Her eyes flicker, grey and flinty, then sad, then it passes.

"We want to see this to the end. We've got the goods locked up behind walls high enough to stop Brainiac himself from taking them by force. But we need Pym Particles and an arc reactor and civic coordination and disaster relief aid. We need the Avengers and the X-men, and they need us. I think if anything, what soured that meeting-- on all sides-- was people who were moving around to a place where they could *not* need anyone else. And no one, not us or anyone, has the werewithal to get this thing figured out on their own."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper listens, she really does as Cait speaks once more. She gets it, and it should be plain upon her face that she respects the woman personally, and undoubtedly professionally. She nods through the other woman's observations, the sound of the need to be heard, understood, and the dedication for seeing the job through.

"I know Mr Stark isn't your leader, but I think he's earned the trust that he's doing this because it's right." There's a pause of a couple of heartbeats before she looks at the other woman, and her voice lowers, "He's my best friend, and he leads the Avengers. I understand." She takes a deep breath, one of those 'cleansing' ones and straightens.

"We all want to see this to end. All of us." It's a heartfelt sentiment. "We need it all, and I'm glad that we can get all together on one page and get it done. That was what the meeting was about, and I'm relieved that finally we can push forward."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin offers a hand to Pepper, a squeeze of fingers. Not just of reassurnace, but an affirmation of friendship. Of a personal connection, beyond the demands of work and loyalty. "I understand, Pepper. I do," she promises, and holds that reassuring pose for a moment.

"I've got a few more hours of work in the labs," she says, switching back to less emotionally weighty topics. "I'll head to the Tower before I go home. Start packing up the stuff we'll need to bring to the assembly site. There's a fair amount of work left, but I think we can get it done. Everyone," she clarifies. "I know for sure I don't want to do it on *my* own."

"'s there anything else you need 'fore I go?" she offers, and she's back into the role of a dutiful employee looking after her boss.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper is grateful for the squeeze; the bridging the potential gap that this could have caused is unnecessary, and she squeezes the other woman's in return. There's a warmth in the gesture and in the return, not to mention the relief.

Pepper chuckles wryly, and nods soon after, "Same. I have a few more hours myself here before I head home." Now, she rises from her seat, ready to wish the scientist luck. "I think that's everything," and the warmth clearly plays on her face. "Go on. I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow.." and the next day, and the next day...