simon_doctor | (no subject)

Jordie raises his eyebrows and starts the car. "Oh, did you actually do any work besides interacting with criminals?"

"A few things," he says lightly. "I met with the new hires, and sat in on some important policy meetings."

Beat.

"Interacting with criminals was a lot more fun, honestly."

Jordie points at him.

"If they come after you. I'm coming after you. Twice. Don't forget that."

"It's not forgotten," he assures him. "And ... it didn't seem like they were planning to, in the end."

"Pointing out," Jordie says, easing the car out of the garage, "that your fugitive skills seemed a little rusty would seem ungrateful of me. So I'll refrain."

"I appreciate it," he says a touch dryly. "In any case ... while my people skills were never that great to begin with, I don't think they'd have any reason to dissemble about parting on good terms."

"...I am not having this argument with you twenty minutes before you leave."

"Fair enough."

He leans back into the seat, sighing.

"Will you let me know if anything more happens, with this?"

He changes lanes. "Sure."

He has no intention of telling Simon anything.

Simon eyes him sidelong.

"Okay." Quiet. "Thanks."

They're on the tollway, speeding toward the port.

"Any last stops?"

"Nothing I can think of."

He watches the city roll by outside the car windows, a hundred subtle shades of glass and steel.

"You don't ever think about coming back?" Curiously.

He feels vaguely that he ought to be surprised by the question, but it's almost as though he'd expected it.

"Sometimes," he admits. "Someday."

"When you're too old to really enjoy it," he says, mostly cheerfully.

"I don't know if that's even possible." Lightly, as he brushes the window with the tips of his fingers.

Jordie snorts. "You were too old to enjoy it when we were in undergrad. That's why I dragged you out to do things against your will."

"Which I greatly appreciated. Even when I complained."

Beat.

"Though maybe not while I was complaining."

"You only appreciated it in hindsight," he says serenely.

"Would it have been as much fun for you if I hadn't complained, though?"

Jordie merges them onto the spur lane out to the port. "Hell yes. I did enough defense of my half-cocked ideas in class."

"But you didn't win in class as often as you did persuading me to do something insane."

Dry: "Thanks for rubbing it in."

"Considering how often you did win in class, I'd say that speaks more highly of your persuasiveness than otherwise."

Beat.

"What was that one time, with the art festival --"

"Oh, you mean the time I broke a date and used that to convince you of my seriousness?"