Chapter 28: Some nice tea and conversation
"It's been far too long since we did this, Iris." Ophelia groaned in delight as they sat in the window of their favourite tea parlour. She had missed this. Going out for brunch had been a guilty pleasure she and Iris had indulged in whenever possible before the bombing of headquarters. It hadn't been often, but about once every month or two they took a break from the boys for a little girl time. Since the bombing it had been far too busy to take any sort of break but with the move to headquarters and the introduction of the new roster shortly before, they had found themselves a window for a nice Sunday morning sit-down with some lovely tea, scones and sandwiches.
"I know, it's been far too busy lately. I'm so glad we got to do this again. I had almost forgotten how good the food was at this place." Iris gushed.
"Too right." She answered.
"These sandwiches are so good. I thought my foster mum was a good cook but it's nothing compared to this." Mandi said before taking another bite. Ophelia had been drawn to Mandi almost immediately the day she had spent in their department staring excitedly at the screens. She had recognized a fellow orphan in need of support. They had kept in touch through text messages, mostly Mandi asking them questions about all that she had seen that day, and she had asked Iris if she minded if she asked Mandi to come along. Iris, who had been asked by Q to keep in touch with the girl, hadn't minded at all.
"Did you get into any trouble for skipping school by the way?" Iris asked.
"Nope, because someone had called in to say I was on a fieldtrip to orientate for the opportunities in my future field of work." Mandi said exasperated. Iris snorted.
"Q" Ophelia rolled her eyes.
"Really?" Mandi asked wide eyed.
"Wouldn't put it past him." She answered.
"Next thing you're going to tell he gave me my scholarship too." Mandi said a little sarcastically.
"Again, I wouldn't put it past him." She replied quite seriously.
"Really?" Mandi asked again, her eyes even wider, her voice slightly wobbly. Ophelia was glad she wasn't gushing over GHOST again. As her day in Q-branch had worn on Mandi's hero worship had slowly been reduced to what Ophelia called acceptable minion levels.
"Word of advice: Don't underestimate Q." Iris said. "He can make things happen."
"We don't know how he does it." Ophelia chimed in. "Things appear to just happen because he says they are. It's like magic." She threw out her hands to make her words sparkle. Iris and Mandi laughed.
"Hey, is that Jordan?" Mandi asked suddenly. Ophelia looked up from her teacup. Mandi was pointing out the window across the street. Ophelia couldn't see from where she was sitting but Iris was frowning.
"Yes, it is." She mumbled before she walked to the door. Ophelia moved into Iris's seat and saw Jordan startle when Iris called out to him, hesitate for a moment before walking their way. He was almost dragging his feet as if he didn't want to talk to them.
"What happened to your ear?" Iris asked as they came in and walked over to their table.
"Cut myself shaving." Jordan replied his hand going to the bandage covering his ear. Iris laughed.
"You cut your whole ear off or something?" She asked. Jordan grinned sheepishly.
"No just cut it at a very inconvenient place. And after three attempts of putting a plaster over it they ran out so this was the next best thing. Hey guys." Jordan greeted.
Meanwhile Ophelia had pulled up a chair from another table.
"Have a seat." She said claiming her own chair again. Jordan held up his hand apologetically.
"I would love to but I can't, I have to go to work. Sorry." He said. Iris frowned.
"I thought you had been given a few days off?" She asked.
"Is that what R has told you?" Jordan looked at them incredulously. He sounded a bit angry but Ophelia didn't understand why? She looked at Iris who was looking as confused as she was.
"R hasn't told us anything." She said, trying to placate him. "At first, we thought that you were working on something for Q but I asked him and he just told me you wouldn't be in for a while. Isn't that what happened?" Jordan shook his head.
"I just couldn't do it anymore." He explained. "Q had me do something illegal and I did it in the understanding that R would know about it. She didn't. I mean sure, she understood why I did what I did and all so I wasn't in any trouble. But it so easily could've gone wrong for me. So, I quit. Got a new job the next day. Better hours too." Ophelia couldn't believe it. Jordan had been so calm about what he had done that day. And hadn't she reassured him that things would be alright? It had been for a good cause after all.
"What?!" Iris screamed earning her some angry looks from the other patrons. Ophelia poked her arm in warning which earned her a glare. "You quit? Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you just stop by and let us know?" She continued a lot softer pulling Jordan down into the chair between them.
"Yeah." Jordan scratched his hair and grimaced apologetically. "Sorry about that."
"But you can't just quit?" Iris continued on. "We are understaffed still and with the crisis going on and…" She saw Jordan wince.
"Right… The crisis…" Jordan struggled to say something. "Look Iris I…" And then gave up all together.
Ophelia watched as Iris geared up to scream some more at the poor boy and, ever the peacekeeper, reached out to stop her.
"So, how's your new job?" She asked. She didn't really understand why he had quit but it was Jordan's life and he could make his own decisions so she could still be polite, right?
"The work is good and the colleagues nice and it's better hours with my mom and such." Iris's eyes narrowed. Ophelia went to intervene again but the words that came out of were surprisingly considerate.
"How's your mom doing? Has she taken a turn for the worse that you needed less hours?" Iris's tone however was off and she seemed to choose her words carefully. Jordan however didn't seem to notice or if he did, he didn't seem to mind.
"She had another attack the day after I quit so it was good that I could take a job with less hours." He answered. And suddenly, something seemed to dawn on Iris because she gasped and then seemed to choke on some spittle because she started coughing up a lung immediately after. Ophelia reached for her but Jordan was already patting her on the back asking her if she was alright. Iris nodded gasping for breath.
Seeing as she was recovering Jordan looked at his watch. "Look." He said, getting up. "I've got to go. It was nice seeing you all again." He turned around to leave.
"Call me." Iris gasped out. Jordan turned to look at her. "Just to chat. I would miss you if we didn't stay in touch." Jordan didn't reply but waved and walked off.