Garrett sat in the comfortable seating, perusing a Popular Mechanics issue and nursing a complimentary coffee as he waited for Miss Faust. The business appeared to be thriving with her at the reins, meaning mostly that the people coming and going looked like they were actually employed there. When it was King, he often thought they might very well have been actors. Things were different in many ways now, but in others, not so much at all.

There wasn't much reason to go over it again since he was going to tell her about it soon enough. He wasn't quite sure when the smoke cleared. Maybe with the burning of that leather suit. Nevertheless, a clear path revealed itself in the unmaking and soon after he had scheduled an appointment to meet his previous adversary. Why adversary? It was probably a bout of bitchiness the two of them shared. Neither had ever actually attacked the other. Garrett was still surprised that he got in so easily.

Replacing the magazine to its original home, he rotated his neck. It had been some time since he felt a real enthusiasm for something. A desire without any mortal trappings or sticky agendas. It was as pure today as it had always been. The pleasant girl at the desk looked up to him as if she was receiving important information through her ear. "Miss Faust will be with you in just a moment, Mr. Wills." Standing and straightening his suit, a gray tailored number with his old red pinstripe tie, Garrett thought it made a nice touch without throwing the kitchen sink at her.

In an age of technology, tracking down Lori was always trickier than it had to be. Her office was a no-tech zone. The most complicated pieces of equipment being an intercom and a telegraph system.

Of course, the Order leader could not always be trusted to be in her office. Often times she would steal away to the research floors looking for new ideas, new developments or something that she could use to pitch to the next investor. Often they had to physically send someone to go get her if she was needed.

This was her life outside of the Sanctuary. Beyond being the birthplace of M and her involvement in both, it had nothing to do with the Order.

So why did he come here?

"I bet he doesn't want to risk someone pummeling him on sight."

"We could just escort him out."

"Yes, but then we wouldn't know where he is or what he's up to."

"Does he have to be up to something?"

Blue eyes fixed on the security guard who was peeking out of the stairwell with Lori at the distant back of a stubbly head. "You clearly have never met Garrett Wills."

"Are you going out?"

"Do I have a choice?"

That was the thing they never told you about being a leader. The part where a good shepherd is as responsible to the sheep as the sheep are to the shepherd. Not that any of that applied to Garrett, but she still had to go out.

The door clicked shut and guard stepped away in order to confirm their arrival. Lori took a moment to smooth her hair, pulled tight in her usual work-do, and pull her glasses off. She folded a leg of the glasses over her glass and metal beaded necklace and smoothed her navy blue shirt better into her silver pencil skirt.

There really was no use stalling.

Lori opened the stairwell door and left her guard behind. There were others just as close, alert and capable.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect to see you again." And wasn't he just dandy in his little red tie? She stopped just out of easy reach and did not offer her hand. That wasn't to say that she wasn't making an effort to be polite. "What can I do for you, Mr. Wills?"

And she appeared. Big business had been kind to Lori. Long gone was the wild eyed bombshell that he remembered from the past. Clear and concise. Assuredly deadly. It made him tingle. His eyes naturally traced her figure anyway. Memories usually forgot something that the eyes gravitated to. No smiles were appreciated, as they would have been fake. Honesty was the only policy on his end, so he appreciated its reciprocation.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect to see you again."

He let a genuine grin appear, nodding with eyebrows raised in agreement. " Only the present is a living thing, right? The past only exists because we have pictures and we all agree." He noticed the lack of hand extension, though he was surprised that she didn't do it on reflex. As if he would pull a joy buzzer here of all places? Ah, well. Memories were all she had to go on. And weren't they grand?

"What can I do for you, Mr. Wills?"

" Please, call me Garrett. I don't think I've ever called you Miss Faust." Garrett suspected he was not going to be escorted to the office, so he would just make his case where he stood. Or sat, rather, taking a seat where he had been previous, his head inclining toward one nearby. " I had hoped we might talk in a more secluded area, but I suppose I understand your precaution. Perhaps as I continue, we might do so. Anyway, if you know me, you know that there is one thing that has always been at the forefront of my ethos, however twisted the path may have come and gone. I have and do believe that mutants are a people, a burgeoning race which has been seen as little more than monsters and saviors. We're so much more. Shall I continue or shall we move?

Lori didn't bother telling Garrett that she might have preferred it if he did call her Ms. Faust. She just didn't imagine that happening any time soon and it would have been a lie formed specially for his inconvenience.

He took his seat and she remained standing. In her heels, her stubbornness wouldn't last forever; but it rankled her for him to come into her domain and invite her to sit in her own chairs. Petty? Yes. But it didn't hurt anything to stand. There was hardly a difference in her height either way so it wasn't as if Garrett would suffer neck strain.

Ugh. Rhetoric. At this rate he was going to make her ears bleed and he had only just begun. All the same if their positions were reversed she would have been equally as careful. She crossed her arms and hugged herself.

"Actually, I'm going to stop you right there. I know your philosophy is important to you and I'll need to know your motivations, I'm sure, but as of now I'm only interested in one thing." She leaned against the arm of the chair opposite Garrett and gave him more than a healthy dose of eye contact. "Why are you here?" Her tone wasn't unkind, just no-nonsense.

Vague annoyance. He expected as much from her and rightly so. It was as if she were doing a little handwave without using her hands. Apparently the big leather chair had softened her spine. Her eyes bored down on him as did her words. She was being pleasant, but firm. He crossed a leg over, his own features mimicking hers. Business before business. He could respect that. " I'd like my old job back. Or something similar. My old job of course being Public Relations at the Sanctuary. I can present a resume, but I am sure you know it well. It's all in order. I want to help educate the mutant youth as I should have done previously. Previously meaning when I abdicated your predecessor which allowed you to put your name on the building."

Either she'd bite or fight. Who knew? It was certainly liberating to just say what he meant for a change without all of the maneuvering. His own eyes remained fixed on her own. He had no reason to feel fear. If he had, there would have been little reason to come into her territory where guards or cronies could have at him. Though, really, who was left to complain? Most of his reputation was built on rumor. Regardless, he hoped that he had answered her question clearly without being too obtuse.

It was all in order, huh? She couldn't help it. He might not have meant it like that, but all the same her lips twisted up in a smile. Here they were, weighing each other with their eyes. She didn't trust him, but she knew he wanted his job back. She heard that much in his voice and actions. She also knew that without the groundwork he had laid, she would not be where she was today.

Not that she felt obligated. More that she felt their goals somehow lined up despite their differences. Lori disliked Garrett on a personal level. At the same time, she respected him on an intellectual and conceptual level. The man did have a way with words and he had a severe, if at times misguided, passion.

Sufficient in her assessment of Garrett for now, she took her time weighing the risk to her operation.

Public opinion could ruin everything. It could topple the flow of funding, make a target of the Order and her company and stymie future attempts to focus mutant potential. In short, he could ruin everything. He would implicate himself just as thoroughly in the process, but that was the kind of infamy martyrs enjoyed... it was all a matter of opinion. Which was what he wanted to do in the first place: mold opinions.

"You are asking me to take a risk on you." It wasn't a question. She inclined her eyebrows to invite him to cut in at anytime if he had anything to add to the conversation. "You know I can't trust you and that I don't like you." And yet, here he was. He must have thought she was a better person than she actually was.

"I don't know how to get past that."

He was pleased that she caught his order jib. There was something to like; a sense of humor. People who didn't have them were generally aging at an advanced rate. He heard her say the words and at once the universe opened itself to him, the cosmic powers of manifestation displaying themselves as would the shiny new wings of a new dragonfly. "You are asking me to take a risk on you." She did need him. " I believe if anyone knows about risk, it's me. I can't imagine why I would be a risk, however. The only crime I ever committed against you and yours was the aforementioned liberation of Syn from her mortal coil. That did nothing but catapult you from bartender to CEO. That's a risk? You could use more risk, then."

"You know I can't trust you and that I don't like you.I don't know how to get past that."

Taking a slight inhalation which could have resembled a half sigh, Garrett simply shrugged his shoulders and smiled. " I still have no clue why you don't like me. But, whatever. Your personal feelings are irrelevant to my agenda. The fact that we hold similar core ideals is enough. Regardless of whether you choose to hire me, I will still pursue the same goal. So, it's me out front recruiting kids as myself, or running campaigns backed with money and muscle. The latter serves us both best. Don't you agree?" This was the kind of deal that sold itself, so as much of a windbag as he could be, he kept it that brief. Turning him down was stupid and whatever Lori Faust may be, stupid? Not so much.

And that was why they would never see eye to eye despite the fact that their goals might line up every now and again. He was seriously delusional if he thought that his shooting Syn made Lori what she was today. But maybe he was trying to leverage something. Or maybe he was trying to make it sound like she owed him?
 
He was seriously misguided.
 
She was far too comfortable telling the truth these days. Had he showed up a couple months back she would have lied and smiled and handed him the job right away with some secret addendum to keep him in check.
 
"What I don't like about you is your fickle nature. One minute you''re efficiently getting business done, the next you're a bleeding heart running away with the unicorn." She held up her hand to stave off any interruptions now. Also, his stunt with the rug had left her pretty irked.

"You're allowed to change your mind. You're even allowed to fuck up every now and again. Just don't mess this up."

She wasn't going to turn him away. She just had to look the gift horse in the mouth real hard first.

"Will you live at the Sanctuary again or do you have your own place?"

"What I don't like about you is your fickle nature. One minute you''re efficiently getting business done, the next you're a bleeding heart running away with the unicorn."

That summed it up fairly well. While her hand was raised to prevent rebuttal, Garrett's mind worked away at the sentence, like a leaf cutting ant. Fickle nature. He knew that most of the politics concerning him gravitated to this one thing about him. It was never a thing he felt ashamed of, it was more an adjective, like Garrett is bald. Bleeding heart running away with the unicorn. The same unicorn that the Sanctuary relied on for healing. The Iris Clinic had never seen human patient one while he was there. Maybe now, but Ozzie and Harriet were no doubt doing dandy in thier little corner of the woods. No reason to really argue. If this was the ceiling of her ire, he was acing it.

"You're allowed to change your mind. You're even allowed to f*** up every now and again. Just don't mess this up."

He could tell that silence was at least silver at the moment. Perhaps its value would rise sooner than later. The this. What was this this? With her question of where his living arrangements would be located answered half of that question. " Sanctuary, full time. Though, I think rather than couching it, I'd prefer to have a room connected to an office, if that suits you. I imagine the office is still there, more than likely covered in dust and silence. Nevertheless, I'll be focusing my efforts and energy on the Sanctuary residents, yes. What about other work?" If she caught his order reference earlier, this would be obvious. Sure, he wanted to run the day to day of the Sanctuary again. But there was so much more to do.

"Good." To the living in the Sanctuary full time. And as for the rest. "We'll see about other work as it crops up. Lisa can fill you in and get you settled. Don't worry, you should have plenty to do." She would have to have someone put in a call to Lisa to make sure she didn't lock him out or mace him or something instead of getting him two joined rooms so that he could call one an office. "Anything else I can help you with today?"

"We'll see about other work as it crops up. Lisa can fill you in and get you settled. Don't worry, you should have plenty to do." Boy, did she say a mouthful there. He had no doubt that with time and actions, he would be back in the upper echelons. There were a slim handful of mutants who believed as he did that mutants were a separate species, an evolution from the human race. Sure, the literature made it seem as if all were on board, but more times than not, the Sanctuary, and even the Order, merely contained criminals who happened to be mutants. They were mercenary. He was talking to one of the latters.

His agenda, and of course there was one, contained global ramifications for the furthering of mutant rights and issues. A step fprward into legacy began with the actions of today. The future was now. While he had no intention of leaving the Sanctuary and its counterpart, he surely had greater aims than thuggery and city domination. The shining day would come when mutants took their proper place on the planet. He would see to it.

"No, I think that about does it. Thank you for your time, Lori. I'll get to work on moving over the next week." They could continue their vague niceties, but why bother? They had what they wanted. He simply nodded his head with a slight bowing of the torso and turned his back, walking out of the corporation headquarters and into the day.