"As Brilliant As"
June 17, 2008 Safehouse 1, Main Conference Room New York 0745 hours "This is a lot of Bantha fodder," Paige said as she looked over the itinerary. "A lot of what?" Gray responded. His face was scrunched up in confusion and his British accent lended to Paige's amusement. He was a gentle creature, she believed, and only upon a generous amount of provoking would he be anything else. Not to say he didn't have a mean streak, or even the potential to be downright cruel, because he did. He had watched Michael and Joshua hurt her, after all. But for the most part, he was a gentle creature, and that in itself was amusing to her, and she couldn't help it, even with what he had taken part in, she couldn't help but like him. "Nothing," she shook her head smiling gently at him. "It's just...a lot of...stuff." "We have a lot of 'stuff' as you say, to cover," he replied shuffling papers again. The same papers he had shuffled ten times already. "Yeah, but these are sooooo boring," she rolled her eyes and tugged at a few stray hairs that were falling out of her makeshift bun. She wore black flaired pants and a red short sleeved tee, both offered enough cotton to be discreet, but were clingy enough to accent her curves. Her hair, once down, was wrapped twice around a pen she had borrowed from Gray, herself coming to the meetings completely unprepared, and now perched precariously at the back of her head. Gray took his glasses off with a small sigh and leaned on the table. "I expected you above all people to be interested and curious about this." Paige arched an eyebrow, "it's not that I'm not curious, I am, and I'd even go so far to say I might be interested, but really...eight hours of meetings is enough to kill a person, Gray. Bore them to death...literally." He returned his glasses to their rightful spot and shuffled the papers again. "It's only seven and a half hours...and we're breaking for lunch." Paige smiled and shook her head. He could be endearing when he wanted to. They were meeting with two Russian government officials, their purpose: to discuss the worlds fight on terrorism; maybe even exchange some intel. "We ever gonna work with these people?" "We're working with them today and tomorrow. Hence the boring to death meetings," he smiled at her. "Ok, then let me rephrase that. Am I ever going to be working with these people?" Gray tilted his head considering the question carefully. "I would like to think so," he said finally. Anne, the secretary or something, Paige wasn't sure as she had never met her before today, poked her head in the conference room. "They've arrived and are making their way up here." "Thank you Anne," Gray said cheerily. "Shall we?" "Oh, we shall, my dear boy," Paige mocked him in a very bad version of a British accent. They made their way to the lounge area outside of the offices. Paige sat down as Gray stood watching the door. "They better speak English," Paige commented, now twirling the unruly hairs that escaped her bun. "They do," Gray said smiling down at her. "Is that my pen in your hair?" "Huh?" Paige feigned confusion. "My pen, it's in your hair," he said shaking his head. Paige shook her head, "I don't know...oh look, they're here," Paige stood and smiled as she heard the elevator arrive. They waited for the escort (someone else Paige had never met) to bring them into the lounge area. Paige arched an eyebrow at the duo, this was certainly not what she had expected, not in a million years. His face had healed from that long ago beating and those eyes, those beautiful hazel orbs that upon her recognition had thankfully saved both of their lives in the darkness outside of Zvenigorod, Russia, were still as brilliant as ever. The Moonlighter, it seemed, had returned to New York... Return