An Early Breakfast [Lyssa]

[Deleted]

Having gotten back early the evening before, Agent Stevens had gone promptly to bed and thus has woken up early this morning. Phoebe must have stayed up later, as she was still fast asleep, so Agent Stevens left a note on the girl's nightstand simply saying 'Went to eat breakfast'. Experience has taught her to always make sure that Phoebe knows where to find her the moment she wakes up.

The cafeteria for the people living in this tribute to all that is concrete isn't much, but the staff does manage to throw together a decent continental breakfast. She grabs a cup of coffee from the pot, a container of yogurt, and a bagel before sitting down at one of the small tables. Still a bit groggy since she's only been awake long enough to get dressed for the day, she eats slowly and tries not to think about the day ahead of her.

As the focus of the FBI shifts from those criminals that are easier to catch to those who present more problems either through firepower or their ability to hide, the demand for Phoebe's skills only gets higher and higher. That makes for some rather long and tiring days - at least for her. Phoebe's enthusiasm for her job fell a little after Question's escape, probably because the fact that a criminal actually managed to slip away even after being caught really made the seriousness of all of this really hit home, but she's still managing to run circles around Agent Stevens energy wise.

[lyssa]

Warren still asleep and Lyssa had learned quite early just how nearly impossible it was to awake him when he was sleeping. He slept deeply, so she resigned herself to breakfast alone. She didn't need to leave him any indication of where she'd gone. If he did chance to wake up, he'd know where she was and he could find her, though part of her doubted he would awake in time. He was more of a late breakfast kind of guy, she'd learned (if he ate breakfast at all). She, on the other hand, was an early raiser. Always had been for the most part, and little could disrupt her internal clock excluding illness and regularly disrupted sleep. She was the girl in college who enjoyed classes that forced her in a seat at eight in the morning. This was nothing.

She entered into the cafeteria, deciding to grab her meal before even contemplating whether or not she'll eat it there or take it to her room. She has no need to be overly concerned about Warren, he's in his twenties, matured, and able to care for himself, despite the tendency to put himself in danger. Her real concern is filling out her bi-monthly report to her superiors who had in their words, "dumped" Warren on her. She didn't agree with that wording in the least. She doesn't view the act of working with him a chore. What she does view as tedious is the act of "watching" him. Again, how inhumane could people get? He'd been trained. One would think he could for himself.

Yeah, one would think.

She too grabbed a cup of coffee, leaving it black. She always liked her coffee untainted and strong. By the smell of the brew today, she has no worries. As for a breakfast, however, she grabbed a container of fruit and some oatmeal. She still wasn't sure whether to stay or go, so she took a glance around the room to find an empty seat, but instead her eyes fall first on Agent Stevens. She began to walk her way, intent on the minimum of a morning greeting. She wasn't rude, and after obviously noticing her, it would be against manners to not offer her a hi.

"I think you may be the only person who is as awake as I am." She smiled politely at the woman once she reached her.

[Deleted]

As she doesn't have much beyond the mechanical process of eating to occupy her mind, Agent Stevens is very quick to notice when Agent Anders starts her way. Her mind naturally jumps right to the unfortunate way things went between Phoebe and Ghast the last time they met, though the friction there was clearly much more between those two and not the two agents so there's hardly any bad feelings as far a she's concerned. Phoebe is just so... inflexible sometimes.

"Got to bed early last night," she replies, "Our last assignment yesterday went unexpectedly smoothly." She can't quite remember if she's naturally an early bird or a night owl - she's just gotten accustomed to sleeping whenever she has the opportunity to do so. Which is handy, given that Phoebe's sleeping schedule is all over the place.

"Would you like to join me?" she offers, figuring that if they're both going to be eating breakfast at the same time and place then they might as well take the opportunity to talk. She's actually a bit starved for adult interaction - she genuinely likes her young charge, but being practically joined at the hip with a ten year old can get wearying sometimes no matter how special they are. And most of her interactions with anyone else is usually strictly on a professional level since looking after Phoebe takes the vast majority of her time.

[lyssa]

Lyssa took the offered seat. She saw no reason not to. Though, she had a report to do, she still had plenty of time. She placed her coffee on the table along with her fruit and began to eat her oatmeal.

"Thank you," she smiled at Agent Stevens. "You know I think I have an internal clock. It takes a lot to knock that out of wack." She raised her spoonful of oatmeal to her lips. "It's taking a little to get used to a new place."

[Deleted]

Nodding to that as she chews on a bit of bagel, Agent Stevens comments, "It's taken me awhile too. I'm more used to training facilities than I am to places like this where actual work is being done. It still seems odd to not have scientists around every corner." If she had a dollar for every scientist who has tried to figure how, exactly, Phoebe 'works' or thought that they had a better idea about how bring those powers under better control...

"It's nice though," she adds, "Don't have to worry about anyone telling me how to do my job five minutes after meeting Force when I've worked with the kid for several years." Well, not usually, anyway. Most agents don't have a high enough clearance level to know about Phoebe's powers, so any agents except those to go on a mission with Force generally assume that Phoebe is her daughter and she's high enough in the rankings to drag the girl everywhere. And those who do know what Phoebe does are often green enough to be too distracted by the child's abilities to take the next step into thinking that they could do better. And those who do can expect a big roll of her eyes.

[lyssa]

Lyssa rolled her eyes in exasperation, but not at Stevens. “I wish I had that much luck.” Now if she had a dollar for every person who lectured her about Warren's behavior or judged him and thought they could handle him better, she could retire early and live comfortably for the rest of her life. “I never get away from anyone telling me how to do my job with Warren. There's always someone telling me how to handle him, how to discipline him. Control, control, control...No offense, but if Warren wasn't controlled he wouldn't be here, he'd have broken out a long time ago, and there would be dead FBI Agents instead of his track record. He may not have the cleanest attitude or appearance, but he's a good guy and I know that. No one gives him a chance to prove that most of the time, they always judge him before they even speak to him.”

She sighed. One would think she was used to it by now, and she was, but she was still sore at times, she'd been putting up with for only a year and though Warren had been subjected to it most of his life, she knew it still affected him. She stuffed her spoon in her mouth to halt any more coarser thing she could say in her sudden displeasure.

[Deleted]

If anyone can sympathize with what Agent Anders is saying, it's Agent Stevens. Not that Phoebe presents the same problems as Ghast, but she has her own set for Agent Stevens to deal with. "Believe me, I know that I'm lucky that Force looks 'normal' and does her best to be polite and behave herself. She wasn't always that way - you should have seen her a few years ago," she shakes her head as if further words can't explain it. Young children who can spoil themselves by simply taking everything that they want without restraint are a definite menace - Phoebe's lucky that they didn't give up on her before she learned that it was better to exercise some self-control over her impulses.

"And the only control anyone, including me, has over her is what she lets you have. She doesn't have to lift a finger unless she agrees to it - and she knows it too. She's impossible to discipline unless she agrees that she deserves it for the same reason - with one rather drastic exception. And all this from a child. Nobody would have more control over her than me because she actually respects me. But if she wasn't valuable enough just as she is, then she wouldn't be here either," she rants, before sighing herself and drowning any further words with a sip of her coffee. She's had seven years to get used to it, and she still hasn't. Not just her but everyone who interacts with Phoebe is lucky that the girl at least recognizes that the adults should be in charge, whether they'd be able to physically force her to do as they say or not, and therefore does as she's asked the vast majority of the time. At least, when that particular adult isn't objectionable to her.

[lyssa]

“I'd imagined that she's excelled leaps and bounds since her induction. You show a child that they have a power and it's nature to want to use it and outsmart them, that's children for you,” Lyssa smiled faintly at that and lifted her cup of coffee to her lips and drank it tentatively as she continued to listen to Agent Stevens.

She sat the cup down and turned over the woman's words before she glanced up at her, “Are you Force's first Handler? If so, please make sure she's treated right in the event that you're killed in action. Warren, you see, he never had a childhood, though I know his first handler and him bonded like father and son. I know he loved that man, still does in fact, I'm sure, but after his first Handler was killed in action, it just went downhill from there. I'm his thirty-sixth Handler, and depending on how much you know about him...He may seem spoiled and ornery sometimes, okay,” she smiled softly, “most of the time, but I think he has a right. Force, I imagine was a wanted child, even by her previous parents...Warren wasn't.” She finished softly. She didn't think Warren would mind her speaking for him, he deserved to be understood as well and Lyssa thought that perhaps Stevens would understand. She hadn't seemed repulsed by him and that was always a good thing.

[Deleted]

"Technically, no," Agent Stevens replies, "I don't even remember how many agents they said they tried before me. She wouldn't listen to any of them until I came along and she decided that she liked me. She was three at the time." Such a tender young age to be so opinionated about your primary caregiver, but that's Phoebe for you.

"I've tried talking to her a little about what would happen if something happened to me, but she doesn't want to hear it," she continues, "I'm actually not very concerned about her being assigned to a decent person - she'd refuse to work with anyone who doesn't meet her own high standard, and since she has a track record of that I'm sure that would be expected. What I worry about is how she'd take it. To say that we've bonded would be... putting it very mildly. Seven years worth of communicating by thought..." She shakes her head. What can she do about that besides do her best to keep herself alive?

Trading that negative though for another, she comments, "And I actually don't know anything about Force's family. She was so young - she doesn't even remember them. But I'll bet anything that's why she doesn't trust anyone without reading their minds. Whether she was wanted or not, she was taken from them too soon." She pauses to take a sip of her coffee before she adds, "Then again, imagine a toddler with her abilities and no self control - I can't say that I have any blame for her parents either. To say that she was a handful would be putting it mildly." She stops then to take another bite out of her bagel.

Agent Stevens actually has a fair understanding of where Ghast is coming from; she may not have any idea what it's like to be him, but she doesn't blame him for his attitude much - that he's had a rough life is easy enough to see on the surface. It's Force that has more specific, negative opinions about him. And that mostly because he argued with her - she's a child, after all - though a part of it is also that she's had her own problems even if she may appear to be having a decent life.

[lyssa]

There wasn't much to say to what Stevens said. Lyssa was satisfied or accepting of the answers. She allowed the silence to be comfortable as she calmly ate her oatmeal. “How long have you been in the FBI?” She asked after a moment, deciding that with the last subject more or less finished in her book, small talk could be brought in.

[Deleted]

Content to fill the silence by putting a solid dent into her breakfast, Agent Stevens doesn't speak up again until Agent Anders' question. "Almost twelve years. Four before Force, seven with," she replies, "How about you?" she replies, mentally thinking over that time. She certainly hadn't expected her career to go this way when she signed up, but she enjoys being assigned to Phoebe - especially now that all the work of so many years is starting to be repaid.

[lyssa]

Lyssa was almost finished with her fruit, just a few morsels left for her spear with her fork when the question was answered. She went silent, counting in her mind. “I've been here for eleven years, but as for working with Warren, that's just been over a year now, which sure doesn't seem a lot, I know.” She smiled amusedly, “but like I've said, he doesn't really like a lot of people, so a year is actually an achievement.”

[Deleted]

Sipping her coffee as Lyssa answers, Agent Stevens nods at that. "He does seem like a challenge to work with. It's been awhile since someone made Force leave a room," she notes, and the serious expression on her face hints that she doesn't consider that to be a good thing at all. But as she sets down her coffee and opens up the container of yogurt she adds, "I'm glad that he has you to work with; he's very talented and valuable to the FBI - he deserves decent shot at being happy with his life as well, and who he's partnered with would be a huge factor in that."

[lyssa]

Lyssa smiled sardonically despite that the other woman's face was clearly negative. She pushed her fruit cup to the side, the container now empty. She wrapped a hand around her coffee cup. “I hope he's happy.” Her face softened. “I really want him to be and I try to make things easy for him, but sometimes I don't think I do a great job. But beyond that, him making your ward leave the room, isn't anything new to me. He's just like that, and trust me, he could have done worse, I'm sure.”

[Deleted]

Agent Stevens frowns and ponders her yogurt for a moment as she considers just how much of her thoughts on that subject she should say out loud. "So could Force," she says finally, "I know the way she reacted seemed, well, age-appropriate. But that's not normal for her. Normally if someone bothers her she simply refuses to talk or listen to them. Leaving the room means that she was losing her temper, and it usually takes more than even that. It's not a good sign. And she also doesn't want to talk to me about it - that's not normal too."

What Agent Stevens leaves unsaid is that leaving a room is also a sign that it may have been thoughts and not words that were bothering the girl - since Phoebe is self-compelled to read the thoughts of anyone she interacts with, if she doesn't want to read someone's thoughts then they can't be by her. But if that's the case then with Phoebe not talking to her about it she's completely in the dark about what happened there, especially given just how long the list of thoughts that Phoebe doesn't get bothered by is. Troubling indeed.