Summary:Koa and Jemma catch up while having check ups. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Jemma is back to work. Whether she should be or not has been a point of contention. But she is back under strict instructions to have regular check ups. Like every other day regular, given her technology is experimental.
She's in the Medbay, plugged into one of the machines, it's beeping and buzzing as she uses her arm to lift and move things. There's a shattered mug on the ground and a manilla folder worth of papers is currently floating in the air and starting to settle … everywhere.
"Try again, Doctor Simmons." Says the tech who is seeing to her.
The door opens to admit Koa Turner. It's morning and the first thing on his docket had been his boss telling him that she's going to send him back home if he doesn't go get seen for having been thrown into the roof yesterday.
So. Here he is. In medical. Walking in just in time to see… papers. All the papers.
"Um. Is this a bad time?"
SHIELD only knows about the roof incident. They aren't aware of the nightmare Koa had. Or is it nightmares?
Jemma flushes brightly when Koa walks in and squishes the tennis ball she was holding. It's utterly destroyed, a green mess in her hand. Which just causes the biochem to blush even harder. "We'll try that again, Doctor Simmons, later." says the tech, making a notation on their tablet, before looking to Koa and gesture.
"Agent Turner, we need to see you, don't we?" Says one of the orderlies. "Doctor Gretham will be ready in just moment. Take a seat on the table while I clean up. It's been a busy morning."
"Agent Turner…" Jemma finally says. "How … are you?" Honestly, he doesn't look very well.
It's nightmares. Definitely nightmares. Plural. So far only one of them has featured a malevolent torturer but Koa's not banking on that remaining the case. Which is why he is planning a ward. Or at least wants to research dream wards. There's got to be a way to secure at least his house. Then he just has to deal with all of the normal nightmares that come of being pumped full of this thing's magic.
"Uh yes. Here for checkup as ordered."
The rather well built agent sits down on the table next to Jemma and looks over her carefully. Her augmentations are rather easy to see like this. "How you feelin' doc?"
Jemma's augments are painful obvious really. Her left eye has been completely replaced with an implant. On the right side of her face, an implant covers from her cheekbone to her ear. It's covered by a small metal cover.
"I … I'm alright, thank you Koa." Jemma hands over the squished tennis ball and sets about cleaning up the folder. "Having trouble working the torque on the new hand. They're recommending I spend some time in the gym practicing. It's not such a bad idea, as long as I don't throw Agents into the ceiling."
"If you don't mind me saying though. You aren't looking all that hot, yourself. You like you've been to hell and back."
"Ehehehehehe…" The laugh Koa gives is one of those 'that is more true than either you know or is really that funny'. He has indeed been to hell and back literally. Also metaphorically and it doesn't seem like his trip is going to end any time soon.
"I took on a rescue that… ended with everyone coming home. But magic always demands a price and I'm paying it right now." Which is why he looks like shit. Funny. He'd told two other people that not all that long ago.
"You had a pretty close shave with it yourself though. I'd never even heard of Death-lok technology before what happened to you. Are you… all still there?"
That's an awkward question to be asking and he doesn't mean physically. He means… is Jemma all still there.
Jemma hops up on the bed next to Koa, looking the man over as he laughs like that. "Closer to the truth than I suspect?" She asks. She's not stupid and she knows what WAND does. She's had to consult on a couple of cases as well.
"You and me both, Koa." She says quietly about paying the price. "But I'd do it all again, because my team got out." It's not dissimiliar really, is it? That's why they SHIELD / WAND most likely. "If you like, I can do you examination. Doctor Gretham won't mind I'm sure."
"Me? I am, sort of, yeah. I mean. Death Lok Protocols are usually for those who die but Doctor Nicholls managed to modify them to save me before I did." Her remaining good eye holds his for a moment. "I was dying, Agent Turner. I was nearly dead when they started the procedures."
"I wouldn't mind that. Just, careful with the right side." Koa nods to the arm that is completely wrapped in a bandage and not a standard issue one either. He might have difficulty with his shirt if either Jemma or Doctor Gretham need him to remove it, though.
Koa winces. Near death experiences are slightly more common here than in the general populace for obvious reasons but he knows they still live marks both physical and psychological. He hadn't come close to dying.
Though at the moment he very much wishes he had.
"What happened? I remember you getting caught in the room. I remember dragging you out. Then you were in medical and I had other things to deal with. That… can't have been easy. Dying. Going under the knife. Waking up and being so… different."
Jemma's gentle as she starts the examination. She gets an orderly to help her as she needs. "I'll want to look at that. Where's the bandage from? It's not a SHIELD issue dressing." She's not bad. Jemma isn't. Even with the obvious difficulty of the new arm. The shirt will of course have to come off, but not yet.
Koa really doesn't want to have come to dying but he couldn't know that till it happens.
"I forgot you were there. Some of that time is a little fuzzy. From what I've read of the mission logs though, there was a sentience in the computer that interacted with Doctor Dehavens particular power. It looked me in the containment room and set off the weapon."
Weapon?
"Wand. Wrap of Regeneration. It's Egyptian. Sixth dynasty I think?" How many of those things are going to make sense? It's a magical bandage and it's healing him faster than he'd normally heal. The bad news is that it's STILL not healing him all that fast and it has a lot of work to do. Anyone else would have probably lost their arm doing what he did.
"The arm's not pretty but I suspect you've seen worse in your line of work." Koa says quietly. And then his eyes narrow. A lot.
"Weapon? There wasn't anything in the brief about retrieving a weapon…"
"Can I remove it?" Jemma takes her time to examine the dressing. "Wrap of Regeneration … maybe we should have tried this for the cellular necrosis, I experienced." Cellular necrosis. Her cells had been dying. "Maybe, I've seen worse. It's hard to tell. Everyones stories different." His eyes are next for her inspection. "Well, the effect is very pretty. I don't know if I could say no to either the blue or the green. Your file says a 'surfeit of mystical energy'." The question is implied. Please Explain.
"The brief said that AIM were developing a bio weapon and the facility was part of the development. We didn't realise they'd got so close. When I saw it, I knew I had to disable it." She pauses a moment, the memories flooding back. Her emotions spike and Kelly Dehaven is going to have to regulate those. "But yes, we weren't supposed to retrieve a weapon. Just some research. I suppose you can say we did that. That was the prototype."
"You can. Just… be careful. It hurts. Well, when I can feel anything at all it hurts." Which means some of the burn is third degree. Which is just…
As she pulls the wrap off she can see that his arm looks like charred hamburger. It's bad. It's REALLY bad. And yet the doctors seem to expect him to be able to keep it.
"Uh, yes. I ate a lot of magical energy for reasons. It affects my eyes. Normally they just glow but I ate so much that it's playing hell with that." Which is why his eyes just WONT stop shifting. Some of the colors are quite striking. Others are just disturbing. Like when they go the grey of a flat painted wall.
"I don't know that the wrap could have healed you fast enough. Though if Medical ever WANTS to consult with WAND's medical I'm sure that can be arranged."
He stops talking. Watching. Listening. He's good at that. Watching and listening. "Based on what happened after I'm guessing some kind of biological agent?" Another pause. He can see the emotion on her face. "If this is too difficult…"
They can talk about something else. He needs help with his shirt anyway.
"As gentle as I can, Koa." Jemma answers, getting the orderly to help as she unwinds the wrap. Her breath hisses as she sees the mess, good rising to his multicoloured ones. "What the hell did this and who said you could go back to work?" In her very british accent.
"Magic did this?" she shakes her head as his state becomes more and more obvious. "I need your shirt off." Because of course she does. Again, she takes the aid that's given, and starts the next part of the examination. Not the physical but taking his heart rate, listening to his chest … all the regular stuff.
"Uh. Some parts of it are. I'm not sure I can talk about …" how it felt to be dying. Maybe she might like that at some point but not here, with so many people listening. "Bio-weapon. Yes. A new biological agent that we haven't seen. What's more chilling though is that the records we've recovered indicate they're building it to be dna keyed."
"Magic did this." Koa confirms, wincing as he tries to help get his shirt off. Yeah. He works out. That's obvious. And yes. His right shoulder is just as bad as his arm. "WAND needs the people, Doctor Simmons. There really aren't that many of us, not compared to the work that has to be done. So…" So here he is. Still working his caseload, now with fifty percent fewer hands.
And a truckload of mental and spiritual pain to go with it.
"I'm no counselor Doc but don't you think you might want to see one?" About the almost dying part. Because if anything screams mental trauma, that does.
Koa isn't a scientist either but he follows well enough. "DNA keyed. Are you saying the thing that nearly killed you could be tailored to kill specific individuals? Or bloodlines? Or…" That's horrifying.
"Tell me we got everything they could use to make it."
Somehow he suspects they didn't.
"You need time off." Jemma says firmly as she takes in Koa's state. Oh yeah, the agent works out … she can see. Cyborg'd or not, Jemma's still a woman, it seems and poor Kelly just got a hit of what the biochems emotions think of that. "Tell me at least, you're taking it … easier." If she thought she could tranq the rather fit agent, she might do that. Let him sleep a few hours in medical.
If only she knew.
"Who says I don't already, Koa? Do you think they'd let me out without doing that?" It should be bitter the way she says that, but it isn't. It's quite reasonable.
She nods as he starts to put the pieces together. "That's exactly what I'm saying. Keyed to hit only particular genetic qualities. Can you imagine it." she snorts at the next question and shakes her head. "That was the prototype. It hadn't been completed. But no, we didn't. We got some of the data but not all of it. Doctor Dehaven had to disconnect before that happened."
"What's more terrifying is the samples we have, have traces of reverbium in them."
Sleep, especially sleep in an unwarded area, is the last thing that Koa needs right now. He's not even sure his ward will hold but he's got a mystical library at his disposal and he's willing to put it to work for him. Provided the nightmares don't kill him first, which they might.
"I think that a lot of people aren't sensible enough to take that help when it's offered." Koa says with a wry smile and focuses more on what Jemma is telling him.
"Reverbium. That's the synthetic vibranium we've been tracking. What possible use could it have there?" It's got mutagenic and other biological properties not that Koa knows that. The only thing worse than a bio engineered plague is a vibranium enhanced bio engineered plague.
"So there's a chance they can reconstruct it…" Koa says shaking his head. "And you're going after it, aren't you. How… how do you feel about that?"
He can tell she's looking. Lots of people look. Koa just doesn't generally let it go further than that for… reasons involving him sucking the life force out of people>
"They wouldn't let me back to work, till I did. Besides, you didn't see the mess I made when I woke up." Jemma answers. She shakes her head at the extent of Koa's injuries though. "I should tell Agent Peters that you're not fit for duty." Will she though?
"Yes. The sample you bought in after the gala a week or so ago was helpful. We don't much about the element but our testing shows it's got some biological and mutagenic abilities. I'm conjecturing that they're lacing the bio-agent with to have it spread more effectively."
"Of course I'm going after it. I failed in stopping it. It's my responsibility."
"If you did WAND would just send my work home with me." Koa sighs. "And as much as I'd love to just lay in bed and wait until this two thousand year old bandage finishes giving me my arm back, I've got thirteen missing kids who can't wait for my sorry injured ass…"
Thirteen? Didn't SHIELD recover all the missing children?
"You know that there are other people in Sci-Tech, right Doctor? I mean I know I just said that I have to keep working but researchers are a little bit more common than magi. You almost got killed doing this. You've put in your time. No one would blame you for stepping away to put yourself back together."
Yes, Koa just said he couldn't do that himself, so it's kind of ironic and he knows that. The question is… is Jemma the kind of person who could live with herself for stepping back?
"At least it would be on the record." Jemma rejoinds and shakes her head. "At least come and check in with me, weekly, Koa? Let me make sure you're not killing yourself too quickly." She knows how it is. Most agents are the same. That's why they joined the agency after all. "Thirteen. Didn't that case wrap up and you recover them all?"
"Researchers yes. Field Trained Researchers? Not so many. I fought hard, Koa to be allowed in the Field and get my Field accreditation. Field Trained Researchers who are also cyborgs? Exactly one. Me." There's another shake of her head. "I'm back together. I've no excuse. Apart from the adjustments on my implants, there's nothing more to be said. I wouldn't forgive myself if I did that and someone else got hurt. So it's my project to run with and we're going to beat this."
"Sure, doc. Be happy to." So long as she doesn't get up set with him and toss him into the ceiling again. The ceiling is a lot higher in this room than it is in the gym where he got chucked.
"We did, but someone used the chaos to sneak some extra kids out and we didn't realize until it was all over…" So he's working on it. It's a lot like other missing person's cases. Trying to put together something solid. It's slow, often frustrating work. But at least it doesn't have him, you know, nearly burning his own arm off.
Jemma's determination to see it though gets a kind of wry smile. He knows that determination. He sees it all the time in WAND and he knows it's not lacking in other parts of SHIELD. "You've got a good team, I hope? Folks who are going to back you up? Or are you the cavalry now, Miss Six Billion Dollar Woman?"
A reference to an old sci-fi show. At least he didn't say 'they had the technology, they could rebuild you.'
"Good." Something says the biochem might like that. Maybe it's someone else who's experiencing something unusual.
She frowns at the news, shaking her head again. "Let me bind your arm and help you get your shirt on. It's often the way, you think you're finished a mission, only find there was something else there." beat "If you need anything, my lab is your lab." But she knows too, that not everything comes down to her type of SCIENCE!
"Roy, Kelly, maybe Storm Shadow will be assigned to it. I'm still looking for people to fill it out. But you know how it goes, right? Slow and steady, bit by bit." She snorts and makes the chhhh chhh chhh sound that used accompany Steve Austen "I'm not going to do it on my own. I … I was going to say I know my limitations but I guess really I don't."
When she finishes putting his shirt back on Koa taps the bed near him to invite her to sit again and starts to button it up.
"I appreciate the invite to the lab. I'll take you up on it soon probably."
He pauses for a moment. "Have you had a moment to take a breather? Not see a counselor or anything like that but just… stop and process everything?"
Koa has, sort of. He found he didn't really like that moment but he knows that it was important. You can go a hundred miles an hour all the time and bury yourself in the work but you're only accruing debt that the mind will be forced to pay back eventually. With interest.
"Have you had a chance to just… try to get to know yourself again? I don't mean to pry but based on your… expressions I'd be willing to bet your upgrades there come with some issues. Emotions running wild, maybe?"
The invitation to sit on the bed gets a slightly shocked look from the biochem. She takes it though and hoists herself, pretty much only with her left arm. "Of course. I don't work all the time, you know." he's right though. "I'm trying, Koa… but it's … difficult." She snorts at the last question "They gave me neural implants to help me process faster. Pumped my body full of the serum so the implants all took. I've got little to no control over my emotions. If the regulator we're using disconnects, I'm … a mess." beat "and dangerous. But it is what it is and I'm working on it."
Koa has some time after all. He's more than willing to probe a bit. See how the doc is doing. He knows Jemma, a little bit. They've seen each other in passing though they don't work on the same projects often for obvious reasons.
"Was all that really necessary to save you?" He asks canting his head. He wonders. Did SHIELD decide to do this because they had no other choice or did they slip in some upgrades because they could. He wants to believe the former, but the latter is sadly a possibility in his mind.
"That's why I can see everything on your face…" Everything she feels, he means. Everything he brings up provokes some kind of emotional reaction.
"It seems like an odd question for someone who nearly died but… do you regret the changes they've made? Does it make you feel… less than yourself?" Feel like someone else. Koa distinctly knows what that feeling is like.
How is it that Koa can speak to Jemma like this but none of her … contemporaries … seem to think to? "Most of it, yes. It's an adjustment to the existing Death Lok Protocols, as I said. The cellular necrosis was fast and quite advanced once they got me into surgery. They weren't sure they could be quick enough either."
There's normally a detachment to Jemma when she talks SCIENCE! and she's struggling to find that here. Perhaps understandably. "My right arm was so decayed there was saving it. The eye as well. I'm surprised it was only that to be honest. The neural implants … a bit of both. They needed the control tech in place, so why not give me a boost at the same time?" She snorts softly "If it's consolation, I'm wired for sound. Want to know something? Upload the data to me and I'll analyse the data right then and there. I suppose that's handy in a way."
"I've never been good at schooling my face, Koa. But I suppose it is a lot worse now. Please … don't worry about me." It's touching in a way, that someone would. "Regret? Maybe? It's hard to say. I'm alive and I can fight another day. But right now, I don't know what I've lost or what I've gained. I'm not the Jemma Simmons that was. But I don't know the woman I am now."
Perhaps it is because they know here better. They feel weirder about it. Koa can talk to her more easily because he doesn't have miles of built up expectations about who Jemma Simmons is that are suddenly being shattered, nor the shock of her nearly dying.
"It's handy but it might make you feel like an ipad if it's misused." That's a problem. Jemma being so damn USEFUL that people forget to treat her like a person.
"It's like you've died, in a way. And it makes sense I guess that you're in mourning for that. For what might have been even if you don't know what might have been."
Koa pats Jemma on the knee. "You'll get to know her. But I think you should do that sooner rather than later. The quick you come to terms with what you are the better…"
There's a shift in his expression and his features. Kind of. He looks leaner. Sleeker for a moment. Predatory. There's a hint of a glow as if something is pushing through the edge of his skin before it pulls back and he looks normal again.
"Believe me, Doc, I spent a lot of time figuring out who and what I was."
It's been easy to forget that Jemma was more than just scientist. She's kind of always been that. They just forget there's a woman as well.
"Very true, Koa. Being taken for granted is never nice and the opportunity to do so now, is perhaps even more." There are those who will dehumanise her, quite accidentally. "It's something I need to be careful of, isn't it?" When the Agent pats her knee, she looks down, slightly stunned. Not that she flinches or pulls away.
Her eyebrow rises at Koa's transformation. "Well that explains the notation on your file." She's quiet again, looking her hands folded in her lap. One metal and one flesh. "Can I ask what happened? Or is it prying to much?"
"You mean to me in the beginning?" Koa presumes she doesn't mean to his arm, or recently. Some of that is in a file though Koa hasn't told the whole story. That's actually fairly common in WAND not that many know it. Magical sorts often want certain details omitted and in the name of preserving vital working relations with the few helpful ones they frequently oblige.
"It was while I was at university, I was on a dig and I found something that awakened a potential within me for working with magic." He does not say 'working magic' because it's slightly different. "What I didn't know is that it also awakened something else. A hunger. I can only get magic from life, doc. For me to do my thing, something has to die. I'm a predator and the more I use my abilities the more predatory I become. What you're seeing is the result of me doing that for years. I didn't know that at first though. It's not like there are books on the topic. So when I started having… issues… it took me be surprise."
"Maybe that's what I mean." Jemma answers quietly. "It's a start anyway." she's well aware that what's in records isn't the whole story and that many agents don't trust others enough to share that story.
"It woke something else?" That gets her attention and she thinks on it. "Something different to your ability, or part of it?" then he explains and she frowns "And now … let me guess … you're kind of hooked on it. It's not just how your magic works, you've come to … need the life essence." There's more but she waits for him to continue.
"Something in my blood as it turns out." Which is odd. Koa's file lists him as 'human'. And as a simplification that's mostly true. However not entirely true and that little bit of margin for error means a lot when it comes to things like say… eating magic.
"Need? No, I don't need it to live, thankfully. But want… yes. Taking in life, no matter where it's been ripped from, is a rush that haunts the dreams of the makers of designer drugs. It makes taking it in… easy. I mean most of the things I take it from are plants and bugs and small spirits anyway. Not like people miss them, and it's not like they put up a fight. And they're everywhere too. Just reach out my hand and…" He reaches out with his left hand and makes a grabbing motion.
"You get the idea. So easy to have. Feels so good…" He takes in a breath and lets it out.
"Anyway. Waking up to that reality left me questioning who I was. Because as much as I talk about that part of me like it's another person, it's not. It's just… me. Me with all my priorities realigned."
"You're not entirely human?" Jemma's picked up on the nuance and notes to check into Koa's file. Discreetly but it's got her intrigued. DNA evidence of human variations tends to interest her. Blood, she thinks means DNA in this instance. Though it might just be an enzyme unique to Koa.
"No, not need as in hunger but need as …. yes, rush. Normally that type of thing, is addictive." She wonders by his reaction whether he's gone that far. It certainly looks like it. She's seen inhumans and others in similar straits.
"You sound like you need someone to talk to, as well. Didn't you just finish suggesting it would be good for me?"
"No, well, apparently not. I'm human enough. Human in every way that matters except…" There's that look again, when Koa becomes sleek and predatory. Just for a moment. She might see fangs. Just for a moment.
"It's addictive to me too. I really couldn't say if I am addicted but I do crave it. I can refuse it. Barely. I used to be a lot better but a series of rather unfortunate events has kind of… strained my control…"
He takes a deep breath and lets it go. "I could use someone to talk to but… the trick is the subject matter. I can talk about people things well enough. How many people can talk about magical soul ripping…?"
He could use someone to talk to but how many people CAN he talk to rally?
Jemma watches the transformation again, this time more carefully. The fangs get a hand raising involuntarily towards them. "You do realise that I'm just going to have to look into you now, Koa. You've intrigued me and I want to learn more." At least the WAND agent knows the difference between addictive and addicted. "Becareful Koa, that slope is steeper than you think. But you aren't now and that's important."
He's being honest and for that Jemma is grateful. Maybe he's taking pity on her condition.
She laughs a little at the last questions "You work for WAND, I know for a fact they have counsellors trained in the weird and the wonderful." there's a sad smile "But you're worried if they do, they'll find out more than you're willing for WAND to know."
She thinks carefully. "You've already said you'd drop in to see me. Maybe … " she shakes her head. "…. I'm not a counsellor, I'm not trained for that but I *can* listen."
"I know. But…" Koa sighs and waves his good hand a little, helplessly. "I have to do it to do my work. There's no avoiding it. No getting out of it. I need the power in order to help people. Even if it puts me at risk."
Jemma will find, if she talks to Koa enough, that he has a very strong concept of duty. And that which he has pledged to do he will carry out, consequences to himself be damned. It's a rather sacrificial attitude.
But it's also the reason he's in such damn bad shape…
"But feel free to look into me. Just be aware that there are things out there that you can't science…" He smiles a little and then becomes more serious. "It's less that and more… the counselors are good at their job. I've used them before. Comes with the territory. I don't need a counselor. I need a friend and I've got precious few. Someone reminded me recently how little I have outside this job." He knows a couple of people. Two angry women and the men that they're attached to. But they've got their own issues just right now.
"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer. When you're not globetrotting and saving the world."
Jemma catches Koa's good hand, holding it while she looks at him seriously. "And if it kills you, or incapcitates you, to a point you can't do your job? What then Koa?" This is the woman who went to deaths door and they had to rebuild her for own damn sense of loyalty. "I don't want to see you get hurt, Koa. Not if it can be avoided, at all."
Jemma catches Koa's good hand, holding it while she looks at him seriously. "And if it kills you, or incapcitates you, to a point you can't do your job? What then Koa?" This is the woman who went to deaths door and they had to rebuild her for own damn sense of loyalty. "I don't want to see you get hurt, Koa. Not if it can be avoided, at all."
"Maybe you should. We can keep tabs on each other. I suspect some of my globe trotting will have a hapless WAND agent along, at any rate."
Koa takes a breath and lets it out. He watches Jemma's eyes. Well. Eye. She looks… well serious yes. But sad. Perhaps a bit worried for what this means for her own situation.
"Then WAND will have to find someone else at that point. But I'll do the job until I can't do it anymore. There just aren't many of us willing, Doc. Not many of us at all who will answer this call, let alone can. I tell people often that every sunrise is bought at a horrible price. That price is usually paid by people like me." Magical people he means but he might as well mean SHIELD. They all bear their crosses.
"I've got to requalify on my marksmanship…" Koa smiles faintly when she says they can keep tabs on one another. "We can start there if you like. I'll bet you do too."
Jemma's cybernetic glows a faint red in her face, the other one still a warm brown. She snorts sadly "You're telling me in one breath there aren't many of you, so replacing you is difficult. Then in another that they'll have to replace you if you die doing this. That's a double edged sword if ever I saw one."
She gets it though, as she releases his hand. Her cybernetic hand flexing slightly. Did she do that deliberately or is her system starting to just accept it.
"I do. They test me regularly anyway. A squint in the field was deemed to need a little extra oversight. Not that I minded. At least I stopped closing my eyes when I pulled the trigger." The faint smile gets one back. "Are you asking me to go to the range with you, Koa?" Something she's worried about. She's still not got the strength of that arm.
"That's kind of the WAND paradox. The world is deep in enough shit that we have to do everything we can to keep it going, but the number of people willing to help out is never enough to meet our needs." WAND's burnout rate must be atrocious. Those numbers are probably a little bit classified but she might be able to look them up. WAND isn't known to be a huge division. It's got a lot of people relative to OTHER magical organizations but compared to SHIELD as a whole? Or even SWORD? It's a bit on the small side.
"Well I have to go to the range one way or the other. I'd definitely like someone to talk to and…" His smile quirks slightly. "Maybe whatever issues you have will take my mind off my own one armed fumblings."
"I realise that, Koa." Jemma sighs softly. "But I don't have to like it. I also think it's important that you realise the paradox, yourself. Some just don't." WANDs burnout rate must be and maybe Jemma will look into it, but there's little she can do and it is, as Koa says, the way it is.
"I would like the company and someone to talk to." the biochem actually smiles a little. "I'm not sure I'll be good at sharing my … issues. The cultures in my lab though? I'm sure I can horrify you enough." His arm gets a frown. Surely that will heal, eventually.
That will probably heal eventually. The WAND doctors looked at it. Chiurigons actually. But they looked at it and didn't cut it off. It looks painful. Actually she has to know that it is painful. Except for the parts where it isn't and that's probably almost worse.
"Oh do you think you can horrify me?" Koa says in a challenging manner. Almost playful, which he hasn't been this entire conversation. "I've seen a lot I'll have you know. I'd say I might be willing to bet that you can't. What's your preferred poison? I know where to get some really good chocolate."
Third degree burns are terrible. Jemma knows that. She'll be monitoring Agent Turner though. She … cares.
"I don't know, but I think we'll find out." Jemma smiles. There's always the patented dissected brain in the fridge next to lunch move. She suspects though, she'll need to get creative. "Tea. A very special blend of tea. And lots of it."
That's the stake she's putting up.
"And for you? Let me guess, Indiana. An ensorcelled Fedora?"
"We named the dog Indiana." Koa deadpans. "No I have enough magic. But you know what's hard to make time for out here?" He pauses to see if she can guess but suspects she won't be able to.
"Poke. Good poke. There's a couple of places for it in Manhattan but the really ono stuff is hard to come by. I can give you a name, but I want some of da kine."
He's really leaning on that. He doesn't usually let his pidgin out that much and to be honest he doesn't really SOUND like someone from that part of the States. For the poor brit, it might be confusing.
Jemma chuckles at the deadpan and then boggles at the pigeon he Koa speaks "Da kine? Really Agent Turner, what dead language is that?" It's done the trick though and makes her laugh. "Poke, hmmm? Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. Dinner for two at a Poke place of your choice if I can't horrify you. I really hope you aren't hanging out for it?"
Maybe they'll do it anyway. Jemma is confident that she'll be able to horrify the well built agent.
"Done and done." Koa smirks and offers his hand out. A bet is a bet after all, at least in his family. It will be honored. And it might take both of their minds off the fact that life for the two of them is kind of awful at the moment. If only for a little while. And a little while is all they can ask for.
"Dead language? I'll have you know, doc, that that is the one. The only. Pidgin from Hawaii. And far from being dead you can find it pretty much everywhere on the islands. My family is from there, so I've been quite a bit."
Of course he lived in Washington State, so it's not like he grew up there. But with grandma out in Hilo, they visited often enough.
"And you seem rather confident in your ability to squick me. Maybe I should bring the Brain Bleach just in case."
"Of course I am confident. I managed to squick my best friend from the Academy out - and he was used to the things I had in my lab." Jemma dimples a little at the teasing. "Pidgin, hmmm? I shall have to look into it. Maybe we can converse that way sometime."
Another challenge for the hapless biochem. Something that might do her good.
Looking at the offered and then her cybernetic one, Jemma pauses before offering it as well. She can do this. She can totally do this.
"It's a deal."
"If can, can. If no can, bumbai." Koa says with a completely straight face. What any of that means is probably utterly beyond the newly minted british cyborg but he says it anyway. It's like a puzzle. She should enjoy puzzles. If they don't drive her nuts first. And that's probably a bad idea really. Since she might throw him into the roof again. On purpose this time.
Speaking of being thrown around Koa looks at the cybernetic arm and carefully takes it to shake.
"Choice, braddah." Okay, now he's just teasing her.
Jemmas good eye sparkles a little for the first time they've been in the exam room together. "You're going to regret doing that, I promise she." She says, hopping off the bed and offering Koa a hand to help him. "I might well out Pidgin your Pidgin. You're forgetting they enhanced my brain."
"Now I need to get back as I suspect you do too. You know where my lab is, Koa. Don't be a stranger. I even have coffee on offer for those who drop by."
"It's gonna make your enhanced brain hurt. I almost want to be there when you start googling it but I don't think I want to clean up the resultant mess." Koa says with a wink as he also stands.
Oh wait. He has to finish getting a physical from the doctor who is going to fill out the paperwork. Well… okay. He'll wait then.
"I'll drop by when I can. And good luck, Doc. Good luck with everything."
Because she's probably going to need it.