let's complain together [remy]

It was early in the morning and Linc was at work, which normally would have had her in a bad mood, but she was actually having an okay time. Mostly because her friend Remy was working the same shift as her today, which meant that instead of actually working, she was really just talking and goofing off the majority of the time.

Linc walked into the hotel room they were supposed to be cleaning together and immediately plopped down in a chair and put her feet up on a table. The nice thing about cleaning rooms was that she could take her sweet time, and if a manager asked what took so long, she could just lie and say it was extra messy.

"Let's take our time on this one," she told Remy, who looked like she was actually about to start cleaning. "Oh hey, check the mini-fridge! Sometimes guests leave good stuff in there. One time I found a whole unopened six-pack."

Remy didn't drink often, but she opened the mini-fridge, anyway. "Nothing," she said sadly, bending down to wipe out the inside while she was over there.

"Blah." The room was a mess, with the bedding being thrown all over and trash strewn on the floor and all the desks and stuff. The worst kind of room. "I don't know how you can sit in here right now," Remy told Linc, who had plopped down into one of the chairs. Remy wasn't as laid back as Linc, and didn't often blow her work off like Linc did. She wouldn't mind sitting around, but only after the room was clean. She wasn't fond of filth.

She stripped the sheets off the double bed that sat in the corner and then grabbed the pillows off the floor and stuck them in the cart they'd brought with them. There was a weird stain on one of the comforters. "Gods this is disgusting," Remy complained, grabbing it from a corner and lifting it to the cart as well.

Remy didn't drink often, but she opened the mini-fridge, anyway. "Nothing," she said sadly, bending down to wipe out the inside while she was over there.

"Blah." The room was a mess, with the bedding being thrown all over and trash strewn on the floor and all the desks and stuff. The worst kind of room. "I don't know how you can sit in here right now," Remy told Linc, who had plopped down into one of the chairs. Remy wasn't as laid back as Linc, and didn't often blow her work off like Linc did. She wouldn't mind sitting around, but only after the room was clean. She wasn't fond of filth.

She stripped the sheets off the double bed that sat in the corner and then grabbed the pillows off the floor and stuck them in the cart they'd brought with them. There was a weird stain on one of the comforters. "Gods this is disgusting," Remy complained, grabbing it from a corner and lifting it to the cart as well.

Remy wrote: "I don't know how you can sit in here right now,"

"It's easier than it looks," Linc replied with a yawn, stretching and leaving the chair back so that she was more comfortable. Who was she to stop Remy from doing the cleaning, when Remy apparently actually wanted to?

Rembem wrote: "Gods this is disgusting,"

"Eh, I've seen worse," she said, glancing around. Hell, her apartment was probably worse. That was most likely why Remy always insisted Linc go to her place when they hung out. "Gods, this job is such a joke. I bet your old job was way more fun." It had been a few weeks and Remy was still very secretive about her past, which drove Linc crazy. So she was always trying to needle little bits of information out of her. Sometimes it worked, but only rarely.

Remy shrugged as she gingerly picked up a pillow and flung it into the bin. "It's not really hard to beat this job in levels of excitement." There was a single sock lying where she'd picked up the pillow from. "First, why would anyone wear these socks. Second, why would they leave them behind?" Remy asked, using gloves to pick the sock up and hold it in the air for Linc to see.

Linc had a habit of trying to dig into Remy's past that made her slightly uncomfortable. She got along great with Lincoln, and loved to hang out with her, but she didn't even like talking about Hadley with Vex. It was just best to stay away from all aspects of her former life with everyone. So she was vague whenever Lincoln asked her questions, usually.

Gah, Remy was so good at avoiding questions that it made Linc crazy. She knew she was prying and had no real right to know anything, but she just wanted to, dammit. "I dunno, I lose socks all the time," she replied, tugging at her pant legs to show that she was wearing two mismatching socks right at this moment. "Sometimes I think they must wander off on their own or something."

She stretched, and finally got up from the chair, feeling like maybe she should help Remy with some of the work. "Sometimes I like to make up fictional lives for the clio who stay in these rooms," she told Remy, wandering over to pick up a newspaper from off the floor and, rather than throw it away, started absent-mindedly flipping through it. "Like, the guy who stayed here probably had a..."

She trailed off when she came across a minor story about the overloridian, which an accompanying picture...of the same guy in a bunch of Remy's pictures. Wait, what???

Remy was a little horrified at Lincoln's mismatching socks, but didn't say so. For some reason most clio didn't care about what they wore. Thinking about wearing socks that didn't match made Remy feel itchy.

Linc wrote:"Sometimes I like to make up fictional lives for the clio who stay in these rooms. Like, the guy who stayed here probably had a..."

"Probably had a...?" Remy repeated in question, looking up from the nightstand she'd been wiping off. Lincoln was holding a newspaper and looking at it in surprise. "Something interesting in there?" she asked, wanting so badly to look for herself. She'd forced herself to stay away from the newspapers, but it was hard when the press had been such a big part of her job as adviser.

If Linc didn't have such a good memory, she'd probably think she was mistaken. But there was no doubt about it. The guy in Remy's pictures, who she only ever referred to as her "douchebag ex" before hastily changing the subject, was the freaking overloridian. What the hell? "Uh...yeah," she said, not entirely sure what to do with this crazy revelation. "A picture of your ex..?"

Remy's stomach dropped immediately. Her usual flawless facade was shattered as she had to pause to decide how to continue. Fess up? Lie? Why did she feel like she'd been caught doing something wrong? She bristled and was about to snap out defensively when she realized that Linc wasn't acting maliciously. She was just curious, and probably now very confused.

"Let me see," she said, hating how weak her voice sounded. She cleared her throat and walked over so she could look over Linc's shoulder.

Hadley. Even though it had been over a month since she'd seen him, her heart still clenched at his picture. And...was he using a cane? The small, white cane was clearly visible in the image, Hadley holding it out in front of him. Remy's stomach felt hollow. Life was moving on without her. He never would have used that thing last month--all the times she'd brought it up, even in passing, he'd shot her down immediately. It looked like Dr. Carver had finally gotten through to him.

Despite the surprise of it all, this was actually starting to sorta, kinda make sense. Remy being able to afford a camera and all her fancy clothes made a lot more sense if she'd had a rich boyfriend. And all her pictures in the fancy house. That had been the overloridian's mansion, holy shit. Lincoln was about to blurt all this out excitedly when she noticed the distressed look on Remy's face.

"Hey...are you okay?" she asked, her excitement deflating. She realized that, supposed douchebag or not, this was Remy's (probably recent) ex they were talking about. Of course she wouldn't be happy to see a picture of him. Ugh, she probably should have kept the newspaper to herself, but she'd just been so surprised.

Linc brought Remy out of her thoughts. "What? Oh, pssh, yeah, I'm fine," she said, waving a hand and walking away. "Just weird seeing him is all. Pictures are weird. Seeing clio when they aren't here and everything."

Hadley with a cane. Her stomach fought between being upset that he'd waited till she was gone to agree to use it, and being proud of him, and being hopeful that he had tripped after the picture was taken.

She went back over to the table and scrubbed viciously at it.

Linc was about to say something sympathetic, but when Remy mentioned the word "pictures" she was hit with another revelation that made so much more sense now. "Oh! He was the one who took those pictures of you! That's why they were aimed so weird," she said thoughtfully. "That's...actually kinda funny."

She knew as she kept talking that she wasn't being the best sympathetic friend right now, but she just couldn't shut her mouth. Everything just finally made sense about Remy now. But it was also making Remy sad, and Linc was worried that she was making it worse with her rambling. "I'm sorry, Remy," she said, forcing the rest of her thoughts to stay firmly inside her head. "I'll shut up now."

"Yep, that would be why," Remy said, wiping her forehead. "And don't worry about it," she told Linc, who suddenly seemed to feel bad for drawing up some of Remy's best and worst memories. "Honestly, I'm over it. It was just weird to see him, is all."

She sat the cleaning supplies down and went to sit in the chair that sat next to Linc's. "What was the article about?" she asked, kicking her feet up onto the table and leaning her head back so she was looking at the ceiling. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Oh, uhhh," Linc said, having totally not even read the article. She quickly skimmed it, sitting back down next to Remy. She hadn't cleaned at all. "Something about donating a bunch of money to the hospital."

Remy was acting like she didn't care, but Lincoln could see the sadness under her facade. Of course she wanted to desperately know more about the relationship and why it had ended, but she felt too bad about the things she'd already brought up to pry any further. She felt like enough of a jerk as it was.

Remy rolled her eyes. How very Hadley. Maybe things hadn't changed too much.

"How very nice of him," she commented. She sat upright and looked around the room. "This place isn't even near finished," she groaned. They still had a whole hallway of rooms to finish by the end of their shift.

Linc wondered why donating money to the hospital was eyeroll worthy, but was distracted from that thought when Remy pointed out how much cleaning still needed to be done. Oops. "Oh yeah! Dude, I totally forgot we were supposed to still be cleaning," she said with a laugh, getting back up to actually begin working for real this time.