(no subject)

[watching_you]

The first time Veronica calls him, she hangs up right away.

She can't help it. It's mixture of feeling unsettled that she found him at all, and realizing that she has perhaps crossed the line between 'curious' and 'stalker'. But it had to be done. After she found out his name, it almost became a challenge, Googling articles on his mother's work, looking for mentions of place and time. They were overseas so her regular sources couldn't be used, and she couldn't think of an excuse that her father would accept, so she had to do it on her own.

There were a number of Abercrombys in London, not enough to be unmanagable but just enough to be a nuisance. After some cross-referencing of neighbourhoods and initials, she managed to eliminate most of them. After that it was just (metaphorical) legwork.

Finally:

"...and I'm looking for Quinn?"

"Yeah, that's me?"

And she hangs up.

"Okay. What the hell did I just do." She stares at the phone for a minute or so, then clears her throat, picks it up, pauses, and dials again.

Comments

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

That's the second time tonight the phone's run since he started going over his audition pieces. With a sigh, he puts the sheet music aside and reaches for the receiver again. "Hullo?"

[watching_you]

Still awkward, "Hi. Hello. Uh, it's me again. Sorry about that, I'm calling from the states so the reception isn't the best, I guess. But, um, this is Quinn?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's new.

Quinn resettles the receiver against his shoulder and leans back in his chair, not quite able to maintain irritation at being interrupted. He might even be smiling a little. "Yeah, that's me. Didn't know anyone in America even knew I existed. Do I get to know who you are, miss?"

[watching_you]

"Oh. Right, sorry about that. My name's Veronica. I..."

A pause, to mentally regroup. She takes a breath, and like that, it clicks: she's in the zone. And she says to herself, who am I today?

"I'm a student, I'm going into college next year. Geological engineering, you know? And your mom has, well, always been one of my role models. I..." She laughs, and makes it sound light, airy, but not too much so. "Jeez, I can't believe I'm making this call..."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Aaaaah." He nods. That makes sense. "Yeah, there's not a lot of women in the field at Mum's level. Did you want to talk to her? Only she's not in just now, so I'd have to take a message."

She sounds cute. It wouldn't be a bad thing to have her phone number, even if he never called it, right?

[watching_you]

"Actually, I... Man. I think I would, y'know, pee myself a little if that happened and oh my god I can't believe I just said that."

Veronica giggles nervously.

"But I, um, there was a sort of biography thing in one of the articles, and it mentioned you, and I just thought, he's my age! And I just thought, how cool would it be to hear stories about her, from your perspective. I don't know if that sounds weird."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

He grins- he can't help it, whatever his picture looks like- and murmurs something about how he never heard a word of it. Then he tilts his head a little, thinking. "Nah, it just sounds like you're writing a magazine article," he says. "I'd've done the same if I could've got Dariel Pertwee's phone number."

The girl's got to be really impressed with his mum if she's willing to call all the way from America. He knows he probably shouldn't keep her talking- that's a hell of an expensive call- but she did want to hear...

The audition music can wait. "What did you want to know?" he says. "I mean- where d'you want me to begin?"

[watching_you]

Halfway around the world she smiles back, though she doesn't know it - and the gesture itself is genuine.

"I guess so, huh? I suppose I could take notes or something and then maybe use it later, I'm sure I could write a paper on this sometime..." She shuffles some papers on her desk, loudly. "Okay. Um. Dariel Who?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Dariel Pertwee," Quinn repeats. "She's a stage actress, Jon Pertwee's daughter- don't tell me you haven't got Doctor Who over there. He was the third Doctor? I mean, yeah, it'd be all reruns, but still-" He shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. You wanted to hear about Mum, not me. She's been at the business as long as I can remember- I think maybe the first thing I remember, ever, was Dad takin' me to see her when I was three years old, and her comin' up out of the ground on one of the lifts..."

[watching_you]

Veronica shifts idly, moving the phone from one hand to the other."I think they play it on the sci-fi channel some nights, but I never really got into it. I guess you're a fan?"

It's his voice that's the strangest part, sounding not all that different but certainly not the same. And it's not just a matter of this Quinn being younger. There's some edge, some bite perhaps, lacking from the voice at the other end of the line, and Veronica can guess why.

"What was it like, growing up with her? I mean, she would have done a lot of travelling, wouldn't she?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah," Quinn says, oblivious to any shifts or oddities of tone. As far as he's concerned, this is a perfectly normal conversation with a perfectly normal stranger. It's not too different from talking to someone for the first time after communicating by email and SMS- although there's no email or SMS to work from, but that's a minor detail. Much can be forgiven in a conversation like that. "Picked up the habit when I was thirteen. Brilliant stuff. Lousy production values, but brilliant stuff."

He's probably laughed, or at least come close to laughing, more times in this phone call than he ever did when she spoke to him in person. This is probably not surprising. Considering.

"Oh, yeah," Quinn answers. "Mum took jobs all over the place. Think I must've changed schools four times before I turned fourteen. Didn't make Dad happy, but he left when I was eight- it's been me and Mum since, really. I know London from the bottom up, 'cos of her."

[watching_you]

Veronica giggles, keeping her tone upbeat. "I'll have to start watching it then, I guess. I have always had kind of a thing for guys with accents..."

Okay. You're flirting.

It's part of the role!

Just watch it.

"That must have been tough... I, uh, my mom left a couple years ago, so I kind of know how that is."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

Quinn grins, though it can't be seen. "That so? I can do a couple of them-" Without warning, he changes inflections mid-sentence. "I'm particularly proud of my American one, although I doubt that's what you'd wanted to hear."

If she's ever heard John Preston talking, or Patrick Bateman, he just sounded like that. Only… whole, not constrained or plastic.

He goes back to his normal pattern of speech. "Anyway. It wasn't much fun, but Mum took it pretty well, considering. I remember that real clearly. Can't say I recall her ever much wanting to remarry, though she's been threatening to go after one of the neighbours now that I'm not gonna be cramping her style any more."

[watching_you]

Veronica's jaw drops, a little; she can't help but be impressed. "Oh my god! That's awesome! Where'd you learn that?

"That should be interesting. As long as you don't live next to a retirement home or a circus or something, anyway."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Television," says Quinn with a satisfied smile. "Your newsmen, mostly. They make it easy to learn."

He laughs. "Nah, that won't be a worry. Got a room all lined up already- it's over a pub, yeah, but I know the owner's son. Loads worse places to live, and it's not like I'll be far from Mum, either."

[watching_you]

"That's so cool. The only thing I ever learned from the news is that the world is filled with violence and hate and nothing ever good happens."

Then, she laughs. "I meant your mom's neighbours, y'know, going with her threat? Nothing better than having a carnie as a stepdad. Anyway. You going off to school or something?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that-" Quinn shakes his head. "Nah, they're all respectable, pretty much. Shop owners and such. Least they were last I checked... School? Nah. 's time I got serious about the theatre, that's all. Got some big auditions this week. Any one of 'em'll be enough for me to move out of this place and get that room over Creedy's family's pub."

[watching_you]

"Oh! You're like an actor or something?"

The other Quinn mentioned something about this, didn't he?

"Who's Creedy?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Yep." He grins. "Had a couple of bit parts here'n there after I left school- chorus stuff, mostly- but I've got a real shot at makin' a go of it now. Creedy's m'best mate. Works in his dad's pub."

[watching_you]

"Oh, wow. Good luck with your auditions. I always freak out when I have to do things like that."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Not a big fan of public speaking, eh? You get used to it, after a while."

He's utterly unaware of just how much it's possible to get used to, after a while.

[watching_you]

"Uh, yeah," awkwardly, "Heh."

Pushing herself back on track, "So, uh, what made you go in such a different direction from your mom? If you don't mind me asking."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Haven't got the head for it," Quinn answers. "It's all maths and numbers and science, even if she just thinks it's common sense. Did all right on my Foundation Maths GCSE, but only just. Blew it entirely on physics. That didn't go over too well with Mum, but she knew I wasn't lookin' to spend my life digging tunnels and building cities from the bedrock up anyway."

[watching_you]

"See, that's the kind of thing that I just, like, click with. Always been good at it, I dunno.

"And hey! What's wrong with digging tunnels?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Nothing at all," Quinn reassures the girl on the other end of the line. "I'm more a people person, is all. If I hadn't gone into acting I'd've buckled down on the exams and gone for a teacher or something. Mum says that's Dad's genes talking- he's a salesman."

[watching_you]

"Yeah," and she thinks of a castle full of frightened survivors, looking for a leader. "You do sound like someone who's good with people."

Her brain catches up with her mouth, then. And she silently slaps her palm against her forehead.

"Uh, so, um, what sort of things has your mom been looking into recently?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

He laughs. "Well, it's kind of you to say so."

Definitely a phone number worth having.

"Oh, right- sorry, got distracted there. Mum's firm's got a dig in Camden Town- they're finally expanding the Northern Line on the Underground. Been pissing around about that for years, pardon my French. Damn near won the bid on the Tottenham Court Road expansion, too, but there was so much red tape in that she withdrew her bid. She's got a couple of other excavations lined up outside the city when that's done."

[watching_you]

"Sounds great. What kind of... I mean, how does she decide what kinds of projects to take on?"

How does she avoid digging up dragons?

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Mum's very big on two things: preparedness, and hunches," Quinn says. "She'll spend ages goin' over the geological surveys for a possible dig site, and if she gets a bad feeling about it, she'll check it out with a seismic survey of her own, on her own ticket. She's got the best rep for safety of just about any firm head I know of. There was this one dig, back when I was eleven- would've run clear into 2000 and some, that's how big it was- that she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole 'cos she couldn't get past the creeps this one spot on the survey was givin' her. Some sort of fissure in the rock, or something- anyway, she didn't like the look of it, and wasn't about to try and accommodate it, so she didn't take the job."

[watching_you]

Veronica's breath catches, and her next response is throaty: "Did she... did someone else ever...?"

Because things change, little things, big things. Someone gets a feeling and a schedule is pushed back another few years, until someone who thinks he's more lucky or who's just less cautious makes the mistake that someone else managed to avoid.

Why she is so paranoid about this she can not say. All she can think of is a phrase that she remembers hearing her mother mention when Veronica was little (and later, a phrase mentioned often about her mother). There, but for the grace of God, go I.

God hasn't shown much grace to Neptune in a long time.

"Did anyone else ever take that job?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Nah," says Quinn. "Mum put up such a stink over it that the Government brought in some people from IOSH to check the surveys over. Couple of weeks later it got declared the most geologically dangerous spot in London. It's completely off limits to any further digging or heavy surface development, so the owners worked out a deal where they got tax credit for makin' the real estate into a park instead."

[watching_you]

"Ah..."

Veronica does the best she can to avoid sighing with relief, as she pulls her hair back from her face and bows her head.

"Well that's - good. Good. I mean, I'd hate to hear that someone got hurt or... something."

She's well aware that she sounds foolish now, but she doesn't care.

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"The Occupational Safety Board's big about that kind of thing," says Quinn absently. "Organised labour's a lot stronger here than it is in the States."

He glances over at the clock perched on the edge of his desk and winces.

"Oh, bugger. Listen, Veronica, my first audition's on the early side tomorrow. Is there anything else you'd like to know? I mean, d'you want me to let Mum know you called or anything? I'm five hours ahead of New York, I dunno where in the States you are..."

[watching_you]

She looks up at her own clock, and winces.

"Oh - damn, I - I'm sorry. I wasn't even keeping track. I'm in California so I'm pretty far behind. I should let you go."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"It's all right. No harm done." He smiles, the phone still pinned between one ear and his shoulder, and stretches both arms over his head. "Hope I was at least a little useful to you, eh?"

[watching_you]

"Yeah. Yeah, you were. Thanks. I really... well, thank you."

Remembering herself, "And hey, good luck with your audition tomorrow!"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

"Thanks!" says Quinn, and hangs up the phone- and then curses quietly, because he forgot to ask for her number.

Oh, well.