I'll { T A K E } thee ::away::

[Thomas Norrington]

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Tom stared at the ceiling. He really should get up. But it was still so early! He sighed and looked over to his alarm clock that had gone off thirty minutes ago. It was almost seven o'clock. A time that Tom had loathed through out his entire life. When he was a kid he had to go to school at that time, which was why he disliked it then. Now? Now he had to go to work. He was a slacker, but he still needed to work. And the strange part was that he was good at what he did, and he liked doing it. He just didn't like the getting up early part. To tell the truth, Tom hadn't gotten up earlier than one in the afternoon before he had gone out and gotten a job. He was a private investigator. I know what you're thinking. No one could just wake up one day and decide to become a p.i. Tom, though, could. He took the detective's exam when he was fifteen and got a perfect score. So it wasn't hard to get a perfect score on the p.i. exam when he was twenty-six. Almost six years ago. My, how time flies.

The man lazily sat up and crawled out of his bed. Being up this early should be illegal. He sighed and walked to the bathroom, turning on the hot water in the shower before hopping in. As he showered, his thoughts were plagued by what would go on today. He was the only P.I. in a small town, and not many people needed a private investigator in such a small town. So he hardly ever had cases. However, on occasion, there was a person who didn't think the sheriff was doing their job, and would go to Tom. Though it didn't happen often, Tom still managed to live in the lap of luxury. His few clients, well, they paid well. Very well. The benefits of a small town, probably. Prices on everything were pretty low, so the people could afford to pay a P.I. more. That, my friend, was a pretty good thing. Unfortunately, on this very day, Tom couldn't remember any cases he might have had. Even as he got out of the shower and managed to dress himself in an apple jacks shirt and blue jeans with some old sneakers, his mind still on work, he couldn't think of a single case. If it weren't for the fact that someone might just walk in, he wouldn't even bother going to his office. He wasn't psychic, though, so he had to go.

Light from the sun shined brightly in his eyes as he left his house. It may be early in the day, but man could that sun shine. Tom rather liked it. He slid on his sunglasses, looking around at the beautiful scenery, suddenly deciding to take the day off. It was a nice day, why waste it? He would go over to the city less than twenty minutes away, and visit Ariadne. Yes, sounded like a wonderful plan. He went back inside his house to pack a little picnic basket. Alright, so all he really packed was a pineapple. But he'd stop by KFC or something on the way over to the hospital. After all, anything was better than hospital food, right? Right. Tom left the house with his little picnic basket and pineapple, driving up to the nearest fast food joint. Once he had the food, he stuffed it in his basket and drove off to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. It was large and very clean-looking, which was different from most hospitals. Most hospitals Tom had been to cared more about the inside rather than the outside. However, Plainsboro was a pretty rich hospital, at least in Tom's opinion. After all, who else could afford to keep Doctor Gregory House on staff?

An irreplaceable grin was on his face, as it usually was. And it grew wider as when he entered the outside eating area he saw an attractive blonde woman in the middle of it. Unlike most men, Tom was quite brave when it came to women, and not afraid of rejection. Naturally, though, hitting on this particular woman was more of a joke, despite how behind every little joke of him hitting on her there was a little bit of truth. He had a little crush on his best friend, whether she knew it or not was her problem, as he made it painfully obvious. His grin was replaced by a cool exterior as he approached the woman from behind. "Wanna share a pineapple?" he asked coolly, moving to the side of her and holding the fruit out for her to accept or deny. "Or if you'd prefer one of it's other names - Ananas, Nanas, or Pina?" he continued, never failing to keep his laid back attitude. He was silly, but that was just his style. Tom let his grin creep back up to his lips, but still gave off the cool exterior as he held up the picnic basket with the delicious smell of food inside in front of her. "You'll be proud, I managed to save you some food."
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[Dr. Ariadne Laroque]

’Oh. My. God. Will this class ever end?!’

Ariadne felt that she was dying a slow painful and boring death listening to the lecturing doctor drone on about things she knew the teacher had already covered. Restless as she was she had been stacking her papers ever so perfectly, arranging the pens in her lab coat pocket and even going so far as to make sure ever minuscule piece of rubber from the eraser from her click pencil was off of her small portion of desk. Apparently it was annoying her neighbor who had leaned over shoved her shoulder in an attempt to get her to stop.

Well, she certainly wasn’t going to stand for that.

Whipping around she threw a rather large white eraser and watched in satisfaction as it bounced of the offender’s nose and onto his desk. Smiling smugly in his direction, she watched as he threw the eraser onto the floor and it bounced down several steps; watching it for a moment, she looked up at her neighbor and shrugged her shoulders because honestly, she was so meticulous about her things that once it had reached him, she had fully intended to let him keep it, or if he gave it back to her, throw it in the garbage on the way out. Seriously, she never let anybody walk away with her pens because she’d never accept them afterward. If they stood in front of her using them, sure, but god only knew what they did with them when they walked away. Shuddering slightly at the thought, she propped her elbow on the desk and leaned her head against her arm. God she was bored.

Dragging her watch in front of her arm she grinned happily as she noticed that three, two, one… BEEEEEP! The egg timer on the teacher’s desk had finally gone off. Grabbing file folders, papers and other miscellaneous items she was tempted to just shove it haphazardly into her large purse but realized that it would get wrinkled and drive her absolutely batty because she knew she would have to stop, pull everything out of her purse, organize it just so and that it would cost her precious time away from her hour and a half for lunch. Putting everything meticulously into her purse with as much speed as possible, she quickly closed the snap and practically skipped to the door. Making a dash for her locker, she open the great metal listening to its protest of her speed, grabbed her wallet out of her purse, hung the bag up and then made a dash for the cafeteria.

She wasn’t hungry per say, but she was thirsty. Wandering over to a machine, Ariadne took her sweet time picking out her drink, which eventually ended up being the largest bottle of soda in the machine, a Dr. Pepper if you will, and similarly the world’s largest Snickers bar. Okay, she wasn’t hungry so much as in a munchie type of mood. Carrying her bounty, she exited the cluttered building onto the outside eating area, which the weather allowed her to for it was an unnaturally warm day in the dead of November, out on the patio of cracked cement, dead plants and a very small smattering of people. Very small smattering. This was nice as she didn’t recognize any of her patient’s parents or concerned relatives though she did get some looks of longing, as though she might have the answer to their problems. Looking away she stood in place trying to scope out an area where people might leave her alone. Spotting such a spot, she quickly abandoned the looks of repressed hope and made her way over to a wrought iron table underneath a rather large oak; effectively claiming it a table-for-one. As long as a bird didn’t decide to relive themselves all over her table, or her for that matter, she would be just fine.

Plunking her drink and candy bar on the table, Ariadne slid quickly onto the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. It was peaceful over here. Nobody bothered her and people we’re… pineapple? What? Turning quickly around, a large smile brightened her features as Ariadne noticed who it was that had spoken to her; her closest friend Tom had come to visit her. Sure, she felt like ignoring people for the sake of ignoring them, but right now she would make an exception because it was Tom. Snickering at his remarks on pineapple names, she accepted the fruit and placed it in the middle of the table, amused as she was by his fascinating love for the fruit, “I hope you brought a knife because otherwise I might go and steal a scalpel from House.” She didn’t actually know if Greg House kept any scalpels on his person, but she could joke about irritating the man considering she did it anyways.

If she had been in a cartoon, a wave of delicious scent might have wafted by her and carried her to the destination of the food it was smelling so good to her right now; the very large king size Snickers bar just wasn’t good enough anymore. Grabbing the picnic basket and propping it on her lap, Ariadne giggled a bit at his comment before cocking an eyebrow as she smelled the contents of the basket. She couldn’t decide what it smelled like, but it had to be fast food. Tom was not a cook. Lifting the lid open, Ariadne laughed out loud, startling the few birds in the tree above her. It was Burger King Whoppers with McDonalds fries. How nice, he had gone to two different fast food places just for her and the fries definitely were the tie-breaker.

“What a romantic meal, I feel so honored. Two different fast food joints. And look fries!” she joked as she pulled out a particularly soggy fry and waved it in front of him. Stuffing the fry in her mouth, she coughed rather loudly into the crook of her elbow, as though she had choked on it but she had hardly chewed the mush and it still sat in her mouth, though she pondered whether she ought to get another cough drop. But god she hated those nasty honey-lemon flavored ones which seemed to be all the hospital had.. “Stupid allergies,” she muttered vaguely under her breath.

[Thomas Norrington]

[/b] he asked, giving her his most obvious fake serious look. "I'm pretty sure it is. Which means I'll have to take you in for stealing from the government. I'm pretty sure they don't like that." Tom grinned and pulled out a knife from the basket just before Ariadne had taken it to smell the delicious food. He knew she would be craving real food, even if she hadn't realized it herself at the time. She honestly thought a Dr. Pepper and a Snickers would satisfy anyone's stomach? Psh, yeah right. Maybe if you're... well, Tom couldn't think of anything where Dr. Pepper and Snickers would make you happy. Maybe if you were a squirrel? Like Hammy! Yes, that meal would satisfy Hammy from 'Over The Hedge'. Of course, it would make everyone else slightly annoyed because he'd be bouncing off the walls.

Movies were so amusing. For a moment, Tom caught himself wondering what life would be like as a squirrel. Were squirrels really hyperactive? What if in their own minds they were going a decent pace? That's something for you to think about. You know... if you were like Tom and your mind raced around like a Cheetah. It was because of all the squirrel thinking that he was replaying Over The Hedge in his mind. At least all the parts with Hammy, anyways. He was the funniest part of the movie. At least to Tom. Simple Tom. Odd he was actually so smart with thoughts constantly revolving around movies plaguing his mind. The movie thoughts dispersed once Ariadne laughed, though, as she looked inside the basket. He smiled brightly. She appreciated the food, good. Otherwise he'd eat it all himself. He would, too, he seemed to have limitless hunger. Food was such a wonderful thing. He never would have survived in any other time - life without McDonald's fries was just unacceptable.

Speaking of McDonald's... "You should feel honored. I wasted gas going to two different places. And all for you." Tom reached over and snatched a fry. Ariadne waving one in his face and then eating it herself wasn't nice. So he had to get one of his own. Before he put it in his mouth, though, he looked up at her as she started coughing. "Allergies? You sure you don't have a cold or something?" Tom popped the fry in his mouth, not thinking much of her cough. After all, it was November. People coughed. "Why don't you take some medicine or something? I'm sure it'll make that cough disappear no problem. After all, you are a doctor. Look at you, so invincible," Tom teased as he took a whopper and began chowing down on it. Ah, delicious whoppers from Burger King with the sweet scrumptious greasy fries of McDonald's. Seemed to be the perfect meal right now. "Oh yeah, that's hittin' the spot." Tom slouched a little in his chair, taking another bite of his whopper. "The perfect thing to wake me up fully. I should have this every morning. If it wouldn't make me fat, that is." Tom let out a small chuckle, taking yet another bite, letting his eyes rest on Ariadne.
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[Dr. Ariadne Laroque]

“Oh pish posh. Stealing is only illegal if you never return it. I’m merely borrowing with permission.” She replied, smiling and sticking her tongue out slightly between her teeth in amusement. Really, she didn’t consider it stealing per say, considering the item in question would never leave the premises. Besides, a scalpel was nothing. Wilson had previously stolen House’s cane and guitar before, so who would really miss a three dollar item anyways? She couldn’t imagine any brand new packaged scalpel had any significant emotional ties, unless the person was seriously disturbed.

Smiling in an amused manner at the blank and far-away look on Tom’s face, Ariadne started chucking fries at him. Luckily they landed on his makeshift plate, so none were lost which would have really been a shame, but she entertained herself with seeing them bounce off his chest, his arm and even his face at one point, until he snapped back to reality.

Grabbing a whopper from the basket, Ariadne peeled off the top part of the bun and started laying fries in a perfectly precise criss-cross, almost like a plaid pattern. Looking up from her food she looked at her friend and bit her tongue. You know, Ariadne loved sarcasm, it was such a wonderful trait for herself, but right now maybe it was a bad idea to whip it out; oh screw propriety. Placing a hand over her heart in an exaggerated motion, she flopped over her chair like she were dying and sighed loudly and dramatically, “Dear me, driving across the road from McDonald’s to Burger King was such a waste of gas. Yes you must be on the last few drops of the fuel.” It was true; you could find a McDonalds in this town without finding a Burger King across the road and up about half a mile. Many times enough she had eaten in Burger King and been able to see the line of cars backing up the drive through at Mickey D’s.

Biting into her fry-laden burger, Ari thought over Tom’s question. No, she didn’t have a cold. It was just allergies. Swallowing the bite, she stared at her burger with a contemplative look on her face, “No, I just need some cough medicine or cough drops. I’m sure it just allergies anyways.” Popping a fry in her mouth, she continued, “Besides, doctors are no more immune to disease than the common man on the street. In fact, we’re more likely to get sick than you are. I mean, do you know how many kids come across my path with nasty runny noses? I’ve never counted, but you know how I get and it’s pretty disturbing.”

Nodding in agreement about the food, Ari quickly finished off her burger and balled up the wrapper the smallest it could possibly go. Sighing happily and stretching her arms her mind was empty and that was bad. It usually was where she was concerned, because it usually led to some sort of comedic action. The song ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom’ had just gotten stuck in her head, and of all the songs in the world, she started mouthing the words before it was full blown singing. Jumping out of her chair, she walked a step away and stuck her hand on her hip and the other the shoved out in front of her before belting out a couple of tunes, “Just come along baby take my hand I need a lover tonight!”

Of course, she really wasn’t one of those people, and Tom knew it. Besides, it was a fun song they both knew and was basically a pick-me up song and joke between the two. And who said freaking out the elderly couple outside wouldn’t be fun, especially once they found out that their child’s pediatrician was belting out such obscene lyrics.

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