2013-01-22 Learning to Trust pt. 2

It's been a day or two since Sue invited James to stay at the Baxter while recuperating. She's done her best to keep the others from pestering the injured man (especially Reed), and hopes it's been enough. Today, she's home and she's cooking. She is by no means a master cook, but vegetable beef soup should be easy enough. Hopefully.
Wake up!
James Barnes pretty much kept to whatever room he was given for those couple of days. He showered, used the facilities, and ate, but if he wasn't pestered, he didn't actually start any conversation. At one point, he did work at cleaning his gun...which took far longer than he would have liked. At the scent of the food being cooked though, he steps out and towards the kitchen area, "I thought I was alone here."
Sue Storm looks over and smiles. "Well, today's my day off so I thought I'd try to make something warm." And by the size of the stock pots (yes, multiple stock pots) she's got on the kitchen's industrial stove top, she's making a LOT of something warm. "How are you feeling today?"
James Barnes isn't one to give cooking advice so he doesn't even really ask aside from, "Are you feeding an army?" It might be something close to humor there. Maybe. He shrugs at the question asked of him, "I'm all right, thanks." Never let an enemy know your weaknesses. Or...a friend. Or...anyone.
Sue Storm accepts lack of a straight answer readily enough, but then offers, "If you need any aspirin, there's a spare bottle in the last drawer over there. And it may as well be an army. I'm feeding both Ben and Johnny, they said they'd be home for dinner, and I wanted to try this new recipe." She then offers a bit conspiratorially, "Just don't let them know exactly how many vegetables I put in here or they'll refuse to eat. Heaven forbid the food should be actually healthy, you know?"
James Barnes seems to consider a moment before he goes over to the drawer. He knows what aspirin is, at least. Sue does get a 'look' when she starts talking about healthy eating and vegetables. 'Healthing eating' to him was always meat and potatoes. "That's a lot of food for...five people." Assuming he's getting fed.
"You've never seen Ben eat," Sue says in an amused tone. "One of these stock pots is for him alone, and I do like to have leftovers to take for lunch tomorrow, you know? Because soups are always better the next day. Not to mention anything I can just set in front of Reed while he's working is always better. " She starts slicing up a zucchini to put into one of the stockpots, doing so a bit carelessly as if she's not worried about cutting her fingers.
"I haven't met Ben." He tries to open the bottle of pills and begins to frown. The thing won't open! It's...stuck! He bangs the top against the counter, but no luck. It's finally tossed back in the drawer, "That bottle's stuck. You might want to get a new one."
Sue Storm looks over. "Really? I opened it without trouble just the other day." She dumps the zucchini into one of the stockpots, then sets the knife down on the cutting board to step over and retrieve the aspirin. Ohh, safety cap. She turns the cap until the triangles embossed in the plastic are lined up then easily snaps the top loose and offers the opened bottle to James. "There you go."
James Barnes watches as Sue seems to open the bottle easily. His frown deepens as he takes the bottle. "Thanks," is all but growled. The bottle is taken back to the counter and he pours out a couple of the pills. He puts the cap back on and tries to do what Sue did...but he doesn't know the secret of the Safety Caps. "Is it magic or something? Some...special combination?"
Sue Storm's eyebrows draw together watching James struggle with a simple safety cap. "No, it's just a normal safety cap. May I?" If James allows, she puts the lid back on the bottle, one 'end' first, then holding the bottle in one hand she snaps the lid back into place.
"What the Hell's a 'safety cap'?" Barnes asks, the frustration evident in his tone. He looks at the bottle again and at how she manipulated it,. "Guess it helps to have two hands."
Sue Storm looks at the bottle again. "Yeah, it probably does. I'll transfer then to something easier to deal with. Glasses are in the cabinet there, and there's cold water in the fridge."
"Just...don't. I'll take these and...just don't." It's wounding his pride, that's what it is. Moving to get a glass and some water, he quickly takes the pills and downs the glass of water.
Sue Storm blinks and ohs softly. She's suddenly reminded of when Ben first had to deal with everything being so much smaller and more breakable than before they'd left on that shuttle, and she nods. "All right." She returns the bottle to its drawer and steps toward the stock pots again. Sites even more convinced now that she was right to not mention Reed's fascination with what's left of James's cybernetic arm.
James Barnes is also quiet for a long moment as he looks about the kitchen as if he's never really seen one like it before. He finally offers, "I've never seen anyone live in a place like this before." Not that he remembers easily, that is. Maybe some targets...
Giving each pot a stir, Sue nods at James's words. "It was a bit of culture shock for me too. My idea of a kitchen growing up was black and white floor tiles, chickens wearing aprons, and appliances that looked older than Eisenhower."
James Barnes looks up in a bit of surprise at something that Sue says. "General Eisenhower?" Is he that old? "Why would chickens be wearing aprons?"
Sue Storm smiles a bit at that. "That's what my uncle always says. Personally, I think my aunt bought the creepy thing to keep people from wanting to spend any longer than absolutely necessary in HER kitchen. Ask Johnny about it sometime. He spent a whole year convinced that it was actively watching his every move."
"At least it's not a mess hall," Barnes points out as he looks at the glass in his hand. "Do you have a big kitchen here now...with no chickens in aprons, I see."
Sue Storm can't help but chuckle at that. "True. And thank goodness. It really was the creepiest thing short of talking dolls." She puts lids on both stock pots after turning down their burners. "Okay, those are going to be a couple more hours. Do you want a sandwich? I'm going to make myself one, because if I don't smelling that soup is going to drive me insane."
Again, there isn't an immediate answer, as if he need to think over everything before finally making a decision. "All right, thanks. Sure." He finally sets the glass down and asks, "Why did you bring me here? Really?"
Sue Storm pauses in pulling various items from the equally industrial fridge. "You seemed like you needed a safe place to rest. Do I really need to have an ulterior motive to be kind to someone?"
"I don't know," Barnes answers. "Maybe. I haven't been...around a lot of kind people for a while." He looks at the Industrial fridge as if that helps to make his point. "A long while, it looks like."
"That's kind of what I've been gathering by your reactions to various things. If you want, I have a spare tablet computer you can borrow while you're here." She sets out all of the sandwich fixings. "Yell out which items you want in your sandwich, or I'll just pile them all on."
"You can pile them all on," is offered almost absently as he's still trying to figure out the whole 'tablet computer' that she mentioned. He feels like he might know what it is, but...then again, it doesn't make sense. "I...tablet computer?"
Sue Storm smiles and explains while starting to make two sandwiches with all kinds of stuff on them, as many different meats as veggies. "Yes. It's a computer about the size of a hardcover book, but usually less than half an inch thick. The screen takes up pretty much the entire surface and you interact with it by touching the screen directly."
"I..." James starts, but he looks down at the counter in confusion. "I...don't know...if I know about those. I...sort of do, but I don't." Leaving the glass, he stands and heads back towards the room he's been given. "I just need a moment."
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