Title: Coffee and Calypso
Author: LadyBladesong
Summary: Paige In The Future
Feedback: Please:)
Power Under Pressure
She remembered exploding in the office. She remembered her opportunistic second leaping to the fore as her mind retreated and her body burst out of the building. She remembered the walking in those impossible shoes. She remembered being unable to breathe. She did not remember the cozy warmth of this coffee shop. She didn't remember ordering anything. Now she sat numbly, trying to piece together the fragments of recent memory broken by her own weakness.
Before Paige Michalchuck was a steaming beverage. Around her were the usual coffeehouse types. The trendy business people on their laptops or meeting, the students downing espresso as if drinking it that much faster would help the absorption of information, there was a hobo in the corner, and all those belonged in the almost-but-not-quite-cramped space except for Paige, who felt a far ways away from her uptown office. Now remembering to breathe, Paige kept her panic down as she carefully surveyed her surroundings and evaluated her situation. No purse. No phone. No clues. Not touching the drink on the table, Paige found herself just watching people. She could tell you exactly how much each coffeehouse patron's outfit had cost. She could tell that some were happy, and some were not. Some were in love. She could have told those how to dress to better attract their intended mate. She could tell them how to more effectively broadcast the message they wanted to send. But she wouldn't tell them that sometimes fashion doesn't matter. You don't think those sorts of things in her business, much less say them. Slowly people drained out of the shop, taking with them some of the warmth that kept Paige feeling safe. Why hadn't she left? She could go, get her bearings, find a way back to her penthouse apartment or to the office. She hadn't touched the drink, although something was vaguely familiar about it. The whole place held a vague familiarity, although she had never been to that coffeehouse in her life.
Someone approached, though Paige did not look in that direction at first. "What's wrong? I thought you always ordered no-whip." And she was a memory, shifted through time to a point that Paige was unable to recognize. Hair swept up messily in a way that was familiar, but the eyes that looked at her over that distinctive nose were unreadable and almost dead as opposed to the fiery openness Paige's true memories held. Breaking her gaze from Paige, the memory looked at the drink. "Nothing for it now. It's too cold and reheating those things just fucks with the flavor." The memory took the drink from the table and walked away from Paige.
Paige awoke with a start in her office, carefully annotated notes were on her desk, detailing what had gone on after Paige had "checked out" as Mick liked to refer to Paige's episodes.
"I need some coffee." Paige said after a long moment, and left the office.