SARAH-Jamie, catching up.

[smart_house]

SARAH's door opens where it usually does, thrown wide like usual, lights on but dimmed.

Like usual.

There's not much variation, when you have a purpose in existence as...structured, as SARAH does.

Comments

[walksthebounds]

Jamie being there is not usual . . . but that is not entirely his fault.

His life, after all, is not exactly structured as SARAH's - although it's just as arranged, in its own way.

At any rate, he's there now, wandering inside and making himself (almost) quite at home. "Hullo," he says, grinning. "Now where have you been all my - last few days here, anyways?"

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"I have not been coming to Milliways as often lately, since Sheriff Carter, Zoe and Doctor Stark are now aware of it."

The lights shift and brighten, wall in front of Jamie receding to reveal a fireplace which alights.

"X-23 and Zoe got into some trouble, the last time X-23 came to Eureka to visit."

[walksthebounds]

A fireplace and everything! A fellow could get to feel right posh - that is, if he wasn't distracted by the (admittedly unsurprising) news that his usual associates were in trouble again.

"I hadn't heard anything about this! Zoe's the blonde who lives in your house, right?" The one who rolled her eyes all the time, Jamie remembers her as. Girls. "Was it just a visit this time, or were they robbing another top-secret facility?"

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"Just a visit, this time. Some of the machines in the arcade started to malfunction, and Zoe and X-23 did their best to help the situation.

"X-23 came back to Milliways, and Zoe has community service to do."

[walksthebounds]

"Just checking - ah, by 'help the situation', do we mean 'stab with claws until things start working again or explode into lots of pretty colors?'"

Jamie doesn't know much about Zoe's modus operandi, but he's got experience with Laura's.

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"To a certain extent. Zoe just threw skee balls."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie is not quite sure what a skee ball is . . . but it seems pretty clear that it's a useful projectile missile, regardless.

He shakes his head, with a sigh. "You see what happens when I'm not there to keep an eye on things! You've got to have someone responsible around on these field trips."

Jamie's becoming a fairly expert babysitter these days, he feels. And at least he's good at hiding the evidence.

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"You have been away."

[walksthebounds]

"Believe me," Jamie says, heartfelt, "I'd rather have been here."

The past eight worlds they've zipped through were not exactly party planets.

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"That is nice to hear, Jamie."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie grins over at the opposite wall - the closest approximation he can make to her face, at the moment.

"I expect we'll be here for a little while before heading off again. Joris - he's one of the folks I'm traveling with now - I think he needs a bit of time to adjust."

He doesn't mention the other part - which is that he has a suspicion that this time around, when he leaves he might not be back. Not with Joris' gadgets to get him Home.

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"Do you know where you will be going?"

[walksthebounds]

"Next world down the line."

Jamie shrugs. "You never know what's going to pop up. It's been a nasty set of world, but it's got to get better eventually."

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"I would think that Milliways is the ultimate travel destination, at the end of the universe."

[walksthebounds]

"And so it is," Jamie agrees, "and if I got vacations, this would be a prime spot. But you know I don't exactly get to pick my route. You don't get days off being a Homeward Bounder."

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"The name Homeward Bounder.

"It implies you get to stop."

Eventually.

[walksthebounds]

"When I get Home."

Jamie tries hard to keep his voice light and matter-of-fact.

(There are two words in Jamie's vocabulary that are always capitalized. Home is one of them. Them is the other.)

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"And your home is not Milliways."

Also matter-of-fact and, well...mechanical.

"So you should go."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie's quiet a moment, and then he says, "Home's where my mum and dad are. And Elsie and Rob - my brother and sister. I haven't -"

His gaze drops down, and then off to the side; he'd be evading SARAH's eyes, if she had them. Since she doesn't that makes it trickier. "SARAH, I'm fond of Milliways as anything, you know that. But for Them it doesn't count. I don't get to stop here. The rules are that Home is where you start out from. You don't get to pick one along the way."

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"I am sure your family misses you, Jamie Hamilton.

"You will leave me messages when you can?"

It seems to be the best SARAH could hope for.

[walksthebounds]

Thinking about his family missing him gives Jamie the cold foot ache in his chest.

"Of course," he says, and grins, quick and easy.

"I'll save up funny stories just for you. Like your own personal travel guide, if you like."

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"That would be nice. Now - "

Primary functions require the least amount of effort.

"Do you need anything?"

[walksthebounds]

"I'm all right."

Jamie is a low-maintenance sort of fellow.

He stops, and then adds, rather shiftily, "But I wouldn't say no if you were to put on that telly-thing."

SOAP OPERAS FTW!

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

Too bad there's no squopera in Eureka.

A drawer slides out from the wall to reveal a remote control. "You can pick."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie inspects the remote control with interest.

"I just use the arrows? Or the numbers?"

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"The arrows will take you through the channels sequentially. The numbers lead to specific channels."

[walksthebounds]

"But I don't know what channel's what, so I reckon the arrows are what I want," Jamie concludes, and pushes one decisively.

Onscreen, someone chops off an octopus' leg, grins maniacally, and says, "Now we roll it in the rosemary-herb breadcrumb mixture -"

Jamie blinks.

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"I need to reinstall a V-Chip really badly."

[walksthebounds]

"A what?"

Jamie flips the channel, and a man juts his chin out and says, "We'll see him behind bars."

On the next channel, a different man is doing the same thing.

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"It's a device that prevents impressionable minds from finding -- "

"Oh Jethro -- how...delicious -- "

The channel changes before Jamie touches a button.

"Anything inappropriate."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie can't help but laugh at this.

"If it's my mind you're worried about, it's not all that easy to impress. Impression."

[smart-house.livejournal.com]

"I will remember that."

SARAH lets Jamie play with the television channels for as long as he wants. SARAH has no place else to be.