(2530-10-07) Lunch with Mrs. Hill
Summary: Jude and Celeste have lunch with Finnegan's mom
RL Date: 07 Oct 2020
Related: Link to Logs with triple-brackets around log:full-log-title, and put a space after each link including the last. Don't use pipes in the link. If you have no related logs, say None rather than leaving this blank.
jude celeste finnegan 

Eavesdown Clinic Eavesdown


At this small hospital, the medical staff is trying their best to help people with very limited means. There's a reception/triage desk for those hoping to see a doctor and a waiting area littered with plastic chairs. Posters on the wall remind people to get their regular check-ups and vaccinations.
Through a set of swinging double doors is the main, open room of the clinic. The charge desk at the center creates a gathering point for staff, where they discuss cases with each other or work on one of the two cortex terminals available. Three full exam rooms line one wall, equipped for emergency medical situations. Opposite those are a few specialized rooms: one for the part-time dentist, and another small room with equipment for ear and eye exams. There is a break room for the clinic staff, and various storage spaces. A walk-in closet with a securely locked door holds the clinic's supplies of drugs and expensive equipment. A hallway leads off to the patient ward.
It is a fall morning. The weather is cool and drizzling.


So! Finnegan is having ANOTHER busy morning. Her current work pattern is to get off at lunchtime, when her family meets her and they all get lunch. However, she's been pulled into a very serious consult on a patient who has a life-threatening, life-altering condition. That's always hard, letting people know they're going to deteriorate and eventually die from something like Parkinsons or Alzheimers. She didn't really have a chance to text, so her mother shows up at the clinic, ready to get her daughter and take her to lunch for some mother-daughter one-on-one. Suzie has to break the news, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Hill. She's in a meeting and it's probably going to take a while. If I had known you were coming, I would have let you know. She really didn't get much warning, or I'm sure she would have told you."

Jude is still helping out, maybe glad to escape the boredom of the big hospital where they don'T let the students do all that much by themselves. He is just wheeling a woman towards the exam room to deliver her into the care of whatever doctor apart from Finn is on duty, then returns to the lobby. Seeing Mama Finn, he offers her a warm smile. "Hello!"

"That's okay!" Mrs. Hill redirects herself, quickly. "That's okay. Jude will come to lunch with me, won't you? I left Atty with the child because she's napping. Come on - I'll buy."

Jude blinks a little. He hadn't prepared for lunch yet. But she's buying! "Oh, er… well, okay…", he stutters, "Let me check if I can leave…" He clears this with reception and then hurries to the staff room to at least throw a jacket over his fairly clean scrbs.

Mrs. Hill is waiting. In another life, she might have been a really cool person, hip, even. Instead, she got married, bogged down with domestic life and children. She's one of those people who peaked during her college years and went downhill from there to be a bitter, troubled sort of woman. There are also /reasons/ for her uber-controlling behavior. "So, where do you want to go? I've been to the pub before but, honestly, I didn't think it was very clean. Do you know they have mold growing under the bathroom sink?"

"I really don't look under other people's bathroom sinks.", Jude grins once he's joined her. "And the pub is pretty nice - for Eavesdown. We could also go to the diner. And there's some fancy places down in the shopping mall.", he suggests with a shrug. She's paying.

"Well, I'll let you choose. We'll have an adventure!" Because eating in Eavesdown is apparently adventurous to Kay Hill.
Jude has disconnected.

"Well, I'll let you choose. We'll have an adventure!" Because eating in Eavesdown is apparently adventurous to Kay Hill. (re)

Jude leaves, heading towards Main Street [O].
Jude has left.

Violet's Emporium Eavesdown
Wed 07 October 2530, 09:42:21 — Wed Oct 07 09:42:21 2020


This large department store offers everything a shopper's heart may desire: Two storeys are dedicated to ladies' and gentlemen's fashion, another to shoes and accessories. The top floor offers all sorts of household goods from simple toasters to cleaning robots and electrical gadgets. A grand staircase leads down into the basement where a fancy deli with foods from around the Verse is located along with a nice little cafe, a hairdresser's and a beauty parlor.
It is a fall morning. The weather is cool and drizzling.


Contents:
Finnegan - Shortish brunette with brown eyes, looks to be around 30.
Jude - Lanky young man with very blonde hair
Exits: [O] Long Lane
+==~~~~~====~~~~====~~~~====~~~~=====~~~~=====~~~~====~~~~====~~~~====~~~~~==+

The shopping mall is not a place Jude can be found in normally. But he know it exists. And he knows there's a rather fancy cafe in the basement selling expensive cake, sandwiches and the like. And it seems to be the place to appeal to middle-aged Core ladies. So this is where he takes Mama Hill. And notices he's already getting stares on the escalator down in his scrubs.
<Public> Celeste has connected.

"Don't worry about it," Kay says, as if she thinks he should be worried about /something/. "You look fine, and it gives us more time that you didn't change. Oh, this looks nice. All of the desserts look so pretty. Where is your little girlfriend today? You should invite her to join us." She moves to stand behind the counter, informing the lady behind it, "There's a bug on the wall. You might want to see to that before it gets in the food."

"Well, I was due to meet her later…", Jude admits, "I could check if she's available now to join us?" Which would really beat being left alone with Mama Hill. He leaves her to inspect the goods and harangue the staff, so he can text Celly a message about his sudden lunch invitation and where they are.

Celeste has arrived.

Mrs Hill inspects the sandwiches in the case and selects a tuna on rye for herself, "And that one for my daughter. Don't heat it. I'll have to take it back to her." It's totally roast beef because, you know, Finnegan doesn't really eat meat. But, in Kay's opinion, that's foolish and really just a way of making life difficult for other people. "And one of those little round cakes; the ones with the flower on top. What will you have, Jude?"

"I'll have a ham-and-cheese sandwich.", Jude decides, as it seems the safest choice in his fancy place full of fancy weird food. "I texted Cel, she'll be here in a bit." They are in the basement cafe by the deli and apparently just choosing food and drink by the counter.

The counter woman, who was all thrown off by the bug, tells Kay, "Sometimes they get in here. Sorry about that. Shouldn't be a problem anymore." She's embarrassed, but rings up the food that's been ordered. Kay pays with a credit chip, adding a diet soda for herself at the last minute. Once that's done, she selects a table and asks Jude, "So how have you been?"

Jude trails after her a little warily. He hardly knows the woman, how's he supposed to make conversation with her? Celly can't arrive quick enough to save him. "I'm okay.", he finally says, "Super busy. Second year at school now. And I got my music. And a girlfriend now." Priorities, Jude, priorities.

"Nursing school seems like yesterday. I wasn't able to afford a 4-year college, but I was able to work toward my RN after Finnegan was born. If you can, consider that. It makes a huge difference in salary and respect," Kay informs him. "Your girlfriend is lovely. Just adorable." She really invited him out to pump him for information, "So, how is my Finnegan doing, really? She's not being honest with me, I can tell."

Jude mhmms and shrugs. He totally isn't going to rat Finn out to her mother. "I don't see her that much anymore.", he says slowly, "First there was the summer break, then I got sent to the big hospital in the city. I have to go through all the wards there to gain experience in different departments, like Cancer, Cardio, Orthopedics and whatnot.", he lists. "And she's really busy, too. How do you like Simka?", he half-changes the subject.

"Simka's wonderful," Mrs. Hill says. "I can see why Finn and Philip fell for her. I just worry that she's not taking enough care of her real baby because she's wandering around after someone else's child." Now, if Finnegan could hear that, she'd be TOTALLY OFFENDED, as are all the foster and adoptive parents I know who are berated with comments about "real" children vs., what? Unreal children? Fake children? And Finn would tell you that Simka /is/ hers. Has been from the day she brought the child home. Maybe that's why Kay chose to voice this concern to Jude, rather than her daughter. Tres is argumentative and stroppy at the best of times. But this long-distance mother is genuinely concerned about her daughter and the unborn child.

But she's totally at the wrong address because Jude was adopted by his stepfather, too. So he narrows his eyes ever so slightly. "Biology doesn't matter so much.", he says firmly, "My Dad has always treated me like his, even if I was someone else's child. And there isn't much she can do with the baby now, can she? It's just there, eating, farting, pooping and growing." Well, that's his definition of pregnancy.

It says a lot about how much Celeste likes Jude that, when invited to a shopping centre, she goes straight to the food hall and doesn't even browse any of the clothes shops! She's just come back from class, so her outfit is halfway between formal and fashionable, with a pencil skirt and puffy white blouse, but with a suede jacket over the top, and heels. She looks around and spots the two of them, heading over there.

"I'm not sure foetuses fart," Kay says, skeptically. "I think she needs to just make the sacrifice and eat more. She needs to eat and eat and eat until she puts on weight, like she's supposed to. Sure, she'll be sick. It happens. That's why she needs to eat much much more than she want to." Kay doesn't press on the adoption thing. "I'm also a little concerned about the fact that Simka doesn't speak. What could be the motivation behind that? She's certainly smart enough. Oh, there's your girlfriend. Hello Dear. Just order what you want and I'll pay for it. I mean, what if she /never/ speaks? What then? She can't possibly do well in school, or get a decent job if she refuses to try."

"Why shouldn't they fart, they have intestines and they eat.", Jude points out to Kay. Yes, they are totally discussing farting foetuses over lunch. He starts laying out his own theory over Simka, but there's Celly indeed and he smiles with massive relief. "Celly, there you are!" He even gets up to greet her with a kiss. "Grab some food quick and join us." This gives him precious seconds in which he need not start another argument with the woman.

Celeste smiles and returns Jude's kiss, happily. "Hi," she tells him, warmly. "Oh, don't worry, Mrs Hill," she assures the older woman, "I'll get it. I really fancy a lobster roll if they have them and I know that's a little pricey." She knows because the last time she had one and she was with Jude, he commented on it. That's how she knows when things are expensive, because before Jude, she had no frame of reference! She hurries off to the fancy deli.

"You might want to go restudy that chapter, Dear. Most of the nutrients that fetuses get they absorb from the mother, through the placenta. They shouldn't actually poop, per se, until after birth. If they do, it can be very dangerous for them, as they could choke on it, and it increases chances of infection during birth." Kay was successfully distracted! But she doggedly returns to the topic, "And, really, we have no way of knowing what's going on with that child, genetically, or what she was exposed to in utero, or since. What if a birth father turns up at the last minute and demands her? That would break Finnegan's heart. The whole adoption center thing is sweet, but I don't know if those two can handle the heartbreak."

Jude is very much not interested, but he is blessed with selective deafness. So he lets Kay chatter about baby poop while he eats his sandwich. And the woman IS on to something. "Well, yea, that's something I wonder too.", he admits and grins a little, "I mean, I DID tell her, she couldn't start adopting all the kids she wants to take into her orphanage. Though I guess Simka is a special case. And if a birth father turned up… well, depends on what he was like, yea?"

Celeste is engaging the deli counter lady in a conversation while her food is made up. She is having lobster on fancy bread, with fancy veg and fancy sauce, and some sort of exotic smoothie.

Kay looks unconvinced about the birthfather thing. The laws are pretty clear. Right? "Well, let's just hope it all goes smoothly and there are no broken hearts involved. That child's been through enough, and it's good to see her in a stable home. Busy as they are, I think Finn and Philip are basically good parents, and she seems to be thriving." Except, still not speaking. So Kay will have to try to goad her into talking when people aren't watching! She looks over to see where Celeste is. "They're not very quick with getting the food here, are they?"

"I'm sure they'd be faster if Celly wasn't talking so much.", Jude grins and looks towards the counter with a loving expression. "She loves to talk.", he shares the obvious information with Kay.

Celeste makes some motions with her hands as she speaks, then finally pays and gets her wrapped sandwich and her smoothie. She declines to add on a cake or a cookie, or anything with sugar. The server is given a bright smile, and then she comes to rejoin Kay and Jude, sitting down.

Kay's device beeps and she looks at it, then slides it to Jude. "Can you tell her where we are? I have no idea?" It's a text from Finnegan saying that she's sorry for the hang-up but she's free now. Did Kay still want to meet up? "Sit down. Sit down and tell me all about you," Kay says to Celeste.

Jude takes the device and types a message for Finn. "@Mall, C keeps yer Ma busy. Join @ur peril" And how that Celly is finally there to do the talking for him, he happily slumps into his seat to focus on his food. Which is far better than talking.

"Oh, what would you like to know?" Celeste is more than happy to chat! "My family are in the cargo business, I'm at college and I was studying fashion design but now I'm also taking politics classes." She unwraps her lobster roll, but doesn't bite into it yet.

Kay clucks a little, "Politics? You'd be better off with fashion design. What are you going to do with political science? You're not going to run for office, are you? No decent person has ever made a successful career in politics. It chews them up and spits them out, leaving only the snakes and reprobates to rule our 'Verse."

Jude's eyes widen slightly as Kay has a comment on politics. "If everyone thought like that, nothing would ever change.", he remarks between two bites of sandwich. Yum. Chew. Gulp.

"Exactly!" Celeste nods after Jude speaks. "You need good people involved, because there's so much going on that's wrong, and none of the wars or terrorism would be happening if things were better, but violence isn't going to solve it."

"Nothing does ever change," Kay says, like she has the knowledge and wisdom of her age to back her up. "You can't rely on governments to fix anything for you. You have to work hard and pull yourself up. All these people looking around for handouts, and does their life improve when they get them? Are there any fewer this year than there were last year? They need to get steady work and help themselves out of their current situations." Yes, Kay Hill is the equivalent of a Republican.

"There may not be fewer, but there are different ones.", Jude replies sharply, "And there will always be new ones because the system lets them down. Most rich people don't get it, but Cel does. She's seen what life is like on Kerry."

"You sound like my father," Celeste tells Kay, truthfully. It doesn't sound like a compliment. "People can work out of it, but they need opportunities! Like better schools, and nicer jobs on the Rim planets. It's not just about handouts, there's better ways too."

"Well, if you find them, I'd like to hear about them," Kay tells Celeste. Does she notice Jude's tone? Or the insult in Celeste's words? Who knows. People like her feed off the conflict. She's a discomfort vampire! Luckily for everyone, Finnegan was close by when she texted, having gone to Liberty Square to see if her mother was at the place they'd originally chosen to lunch. In she comes now, wearing a long-sleeved corduroy shirt and a pair of khaki cargos. "Hi Mom. Hi Jude, Celeste. Everything okay?"
Kay, "I got you a sandwich." She shoves the wrapped roast beef into her daughter's hands, "I'm sure they'll heat it for you if you want them to."

"Sitting right here.", Jude tells Kay somewhat sharply, but then there's Finn to distract them all and he goes to finish his sandwich. With THREE women on the scene there's no chance in hell he'll get a word in anyway.

"Hi, Dr Hill," Celeste says, sunnily. "We're just talking about politics with your mum." The ever-sunny young woman has lost none of her cheer. She kisses Jude on the cheek. "Maybe we can open a college on Kerry one day," she muses.

"Oh my god, why?" falls out of Finnegan's mouth, to Celeste, before she can stop it. She looks down at the sandwich being thrust into her hands and says, "Mom. I'm a vegetarian." She's not going to detail the odd checklist she gives any and all meat before she dares eat it - this sandwich could not possibly pass muster and become one of the rare exceptions to her no meat rule.
Kay rolls her eyes, "Yes. I know. I know. It's time you get over that silliness. Your baby needs protein, and red meat is a great source of iron. It's for your child."

"Mayb we could.", Jude says vaguely, "Kerry is just one of many shitty little Rim planets though. And you first have to get through all the dumb hick kids that college is worth it." He casts a glance towards the fuss over the sandwich, then looks at Celly again.

"You went to college, maybe you could help convince them," she tells Jude. She looks down at her sandwich. "Do you eat lobster, Dr Hill? You could have some of mine!" She's not eaten any of it yet.

Finnegan shakes her head slightly, a stubborn set of the jaw, and tells her mother, "It's just not happening. I'm not eating that. No, Celeste. Lobsters are scavengers. I'll just go over here and get myself something that's sustainable AND healthy."
Kay sighs, waits until her daughter has gone to the counter and grumbles, "That's selfish, Finnegan. You have another person to think about. It's not all about /you/ anymore."

"Maybe.", Jude says vaguely, then a thought strikes him and he grins at Celly. "Maybe if I bring you back and tell them 'look what kind of girlfriend college got me'." THAT's an argument. He eyes Finnegan briefly and shakes his head. #coreworldproblems

Celeste pretends to be offended and smacks Jude's arm. It's like being swatted by a small kitten. Without claws. She gives her lobster sandwich a baffled look. What have junkyard people got to do with sea animals? She's baffled. She nibbles a bit of it, anyway, then she says to Kay, "But Dr Hill is a doctor. She knows what's healthy. /And/ she has other people helping her."

Finnegan orders herself something called a 6-Great-Grain Salad, which is basically a salad topped with things like quinoa and bulgar wheat with a raspberry vinaigrette and a glass of water. This being a nicer deli, she asks for it to be made fresh so she doesn't need to waste single-use plastic. All of that makes her mother roll her eyes even more. "Knowing and doing are not the same thing."

Jude blinks when he's smacked. It was a compliment, why is he being smacked? Why are women impossible to understand? "That rabbit food feeds no one.", he comments on Finn's salad. Clearly she alone on her side of the food front.

"It's perfectly healthy to be vegetarian," Celeste says. "Peter's a vegetarian. My brother." She nibbles on a little more of her roll. "And Dr Hill wouldn't do anything to hurt her baby, anyway."

Finnegan returns to the table, takes in her mother's demeanor and asks, "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the piss-in-someone's-cornflakes bed, Mom?"
"Don't be crude…"
"Because, otherwise, please stop nettling before I say something we'll both be mad at me for saying." Finnegan sits beside Kay.
Kay wraps an arm around Finnegan's shoulder and pulls her close, "I just don't like to see you feeling so badly all the time. And I worry for that baby." Finn drops her head onto her mother's shoulder and there's a moment, like not everything in their relationship is terrible. Kay adds, with a scoff at Celeste and her vegetarian brother, "The voice of reason!" meaning Jude, as she slides the roast beef across the table in offering to the carnivorous teen.

D'awww. Jude watches the little mother and daughter reunion, then a sandwich filled with roast beef is shoved his way and everything else is forgotten. "It may be healthy, but it still sucks.", he tells Celly before he takes a hearty bite out of this unexpected second course.

Celeste sips at her smoothie through the straw, and smiles at the cuteness of Finn and her mother. She has pretty low standards when it comes to parental relationships, after all. "Well, at first I thought he went vegetarian just because his boyfriend is, but they've been together for a couple of years now and he seems to like it."

Finnegan takes a few bites of her great grains, but the tadpole is on Jude's side. Great or not, it does NOT want them. She makes excuses to her mother that she had a bar at work, packs the remainder of her lunch into a tupperware that was in her messenger bag. "I hate to break up this fun little party, but I should go home." Like, before the tadpole creates any more mischief. It's coming.
That refuel's Kay's worry and she rises and, for once, says NOTHING backhandedly insulting. "Okay. Let's get you home. You should be resting."

Jude offers a little wave to Kay and Finn at the abrupt departure, but can't really talk as his mouth is full of delicious roast beef.

One of these days, Jude is going to start getting fat! But not yet. And Celeste doesn't comment on it. She just slurps on her fruit smoothie. "Bye Dr Hill, bye Mrs Hill. Have a lovely afternoon, it was lovely to see you both."

Goodbyes are offered, though kept brief, as Finnegan is turning increasingly great. Tadpoles don't eat ancient grains, damn it. They go home.

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