We're in the Business of Getting Results

An OC rp blog for Charlotte Church, the mother of Dr. Leonard Church, Director of Project Freelancer, from the popular webseries Red vs Blue. Multiverse, semi-selective.

[mothahofinvention]

“Oh I’m sure he’ll keep, dear. It’ll do the man some good to eat some humble pie there on the floor.”

[mothahofinvention]

“I do hope no one is getting married without telling me about it.”

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doctahleonardchurch‌:

If he were to walk out and leave right this second, where would he go? He can’t imagine anything was really open this late, short of some sort of bar. That wasn’t something he wanted to do. Plus, he supposed they were having guests over. It’d be just horrible on his part to have people over and then leave them with his mother, as charming of a woman as she was.

Of course, the rather indelicate comment about Malcolm was enough to pull him out of his escape act, and with some sort of chuckle, no less. 

     “ How do you know that’s not who’s coming? Are you trying to insinuate that you wouldn’t be absolutely delighted to make that man’s acquaintance again? It’s been quite a while. “

Charlotte actually snorted. “He’s not the sort of person that time ages well. I’m sure making his acquaintance again would be about the same as finding an aged bit of cheese in the bottom of the fridge. Fragrant and unwanted. 

“Throw the water on to boil, we can at least make some tea. I’ll see if I can find some cookies to set out. It’ll have to do for now, until I can figure out what to bake here.”

[mothahofinvention]

doctahleonardchurch‌:

Mmh. It took entirely too much effort to keep the old man from rolling his eyes in her direction. That wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have, either. Not too, too unlike this one. Good grief.

     “ If I were inviting esteemed guests from some pretentious board somewhere, then perhaps I’d be more open to the idea of brewing fresh tea and digging out some… eclectic old tablecloths for such a ‘special occasion’. “ Quite honestly, he only had a vague memory of what those tablecloths looked like to begin with. But, if he knew his mother in any form, he could only imagine that they weren’t… to his own tastes.

     “ I hardly see what difference it makes for a casual get together. Especially with the people around here. “

She turned to look at him, eyebrows disappearing under the white puff of her hair. “Leonard Leslie Church, any guest you have would be an esteemed guest. Why even bother inviting them at all if you arent going to be courteous to them?Even if you’ve known someone for forty years, its important to treat them well. And that includes setting out fresh linens, getting drinks, and serving refreshments from your Chinese take out a week ago. Thats how you treat someone that doesnt matter to you. Or how you treat Malcolm. He is the exception.”

[mothahofinvention]

@doctahleonardchurch (X)

“I taught you better manners than this, Leonard.” Charlotte tossed her head in an imperious manner, and started bustling around his kitchen. “Honestly, you invited guests over without even a pitcher of sweet tea? Are you expecting them to go drink out from the hose? You could have at least put out a tablecloth. I know you have nice ones. I gave them to you.”

[mothahofinvention]

doctahleonardchurch‌:

Mmh.

The old man only had the nerve to keep up the stubborn and irate act for so long. It was when the woman apologized of all things that he felt his demeanor dissolve all at once. The posture remained stiff and unyielding, but the look on his face was noticeably… different. She didn’t need to hit him with that guilt. Of all the people who were at fault here, his mother had never crossed that mental list. Nobody should be on that list but him, and that was about how it looked in there.

His eyes darted off to the side, avoiding her gaze all of a sudden as she spoke to him. She spoke too easily of this situation, like it would just be as simple as stitching up an open wound. Although, he supposed, stitching doesn’t really fix the wound, either. It just held it together, and from there, one needed to slowly work through the healing process and let it do its thing. Fucking hell, he hated it.

    “ … They’re doing just fine on their own, ” he argued unconvincingly. Even he didn’t believe himself. “ I’m not sure I’m what’s best for them after all this time. I don’t know how I found myself here to begin with, but I’ll be damned if I haven’t considered how much it must have messed with them to see me again. I should have stayed gone; they would’ve been better off. That’s what opened the damn wound again.  ”

“That doesnt matter now.” Charlotte told him firmly. “You are here. And you can choose what actions you take. You can chose to be a man and their father, step up, take responsibility for your actions, or you can chose to be a coward and hide from your own shadow. Dithering like you are is only making matters worse.”

She placed one hand on the Director’s shoulder, and the other cupped his cheek, gently turning his face to look at her. “There is always a risk of failure, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt try, dear. And the results might surprise you if you did start taking those steps.”

[mothahofinvention]

doctahleonardchurch‌:

     “ Excuses don’t have to be inherently terrible. I think I have some very valid excuses in this situation. “

No, no he doesn’t. 

The old man found himself standing a tad straighter, arms folded over his chest. Oh, don’t use that nonsense on him. What business were any of them in anymore? Familial relationships didn’t strike him as business. Though, maybe if he’d been treating it as such all along, he might have actually gotten some results by now.

     “ I’m under the impression that you’re largely unaware of all the things that have happened between us. “ Because of him. “ If you did, you wouldn’t be so quick to write off my lack of immediate and direct action as quibbling. There are some situations that would greatly suffer from head-on actions, and I’m inclined to believe that this is one of them. “ 

Charlotte was not a particularly tall woman, not like her granddaughter. Age had also lead to some unfortunate shrinkage. But she was extraordinarily proud, and carried about her a certain presence, so when she did draw up to her full height, it still seemed like she was looking down her nose at her stubborn son.

“Perhaps I am not up to date on everything that has happened between you and your children, Leonard. Someone forgot to keep me in the loop for years. I know I bear some responsibility here for letting things go for too long after Allison passed. That was the beginning of the distance between your family and yourself. And I am sorry.

“But I will not stand by and let your innaction harm yourself or your children any longer. Leonard, I know you would have taken basic first aid, you know exactly what happens when wounds are allowed to sit open. Especially after closing and reopening. Wounds on the psyche are no different from wounds on the body.”

[mothahofinvention]

doctahleonardchurch‌:

No offense, Mom, but you clearly didn’t. Not that he can bring himself to say that aloud. He knew better.

     “ I’m sure you did. “ That wasn’t much better. “ But things have changed substantially since then. New developments have been made. “ 

“That sounds like excuses.” She pointed out, ignoring the slight on her parenting. What Leonard had chosen to do as a middle aged adult was out of her control. “And our family is in the business of getting results. Results mean meeting new developments head on and not quibbling.”

[mothahofinvention]

doctahleonardchurch‌:

     “ ‘Leonard’ me all you want, it’s not going to change a damned thing. “ 

But it was a valiant effort.

“Leonard Leslie Church I raised you better than this.”

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“Leonard.”

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groundedxdreamer‌:

perpetualxfire‌:

✮ Carolina pushed off of the couch that she was leaning against at her grandmother’s approach, a soft grin setting in as she gave the woman a hug.

     |│  “ I’m not really used to my name anymore, but      |│      I won’t ask you to call me Carolina.      |│                                                 Kate’s fine. ”

    Of course, what meant ‘Katie’ to her grandmother, but there was only so much she could do about that. Grandmothers got special license to use nicknames, unfortunately.

     |│  “ I see you’ve met York. Er.. James. ”

    That felt… Weird. She didn’t think she’d ever called him by his civilian name out loud. It was… Uncomfortable. Ew. Okay, yeah, that was a here-only thing, then.

@groundedxdreamer​

York smiled at the reunion, if only because he was pretty used to her family meetings being… uncomfortable. He supposed that was just with her dad, though. This was way more wholesome.

“Alright, you don’t have to make it sound like a curse word,” he said with a snicker. It’s not like his name was even all that exciting… even if they were both used to York at this point. Way more interesting, anyway.

@mothahofinvention​

It would probably always be Katie with her; grandmas had a need to affix nicknames to their grandkids just to keep them straight. Charlotte would, in time, come up with one for York, provided he stuck around that long. 

In the mean time, she was just going to lay her hand against Carolina’s cheek and stare into her granddaughter’s face to take in the changes the years had made. “How long are you two staying?”

@perpetualxfire​

[mothahofinvention]

groundedxdreamer‌:

Christ, Lina was quiet when she wanted to be. He damn near choked on his tea. York, fortunately, managed to swallow before he sputtered. Mostly.

“Ahem–hey, Carolina! Your grandmother was just getting to know me. But hey, if you’re fine with it, I don’t see why not.”

He’d never even seen a picture of her when she was kid, had he? Munching on one of the cookies (there, much better), he leaned back in his seat and shot Lina a grin.

@mothahofinvention​

Charlotte had an advantage over York - her chair faced the window to the front yard, and she could see her red headed granddaughter come up the front walk. Her knitting was laid aside and the old woman got ponderously to her feet. She was a spry old lady, but she was in her 80s. Everything she did was ponderous.

“Katie!” she said, crossing over to embrace the young woman in a fond hug. “Or... should I call you Carolina?” 

@perpetualxfire​

[mothahofinvention]

groundedxdreamer‌:

York cleared his throat. Alright, fair enough.

“Right, right. Well, we’re both kind of… retired, now, but yeah, I was in the project, too. It was a whole thing.”

He chuckled sheepishly a little bit, taking another sip of his… ‘tea.’ Stay polite, York.

“Uh, ehe, yeah, I just figured you don’t need any details. It was… more of a nightclub than a restaurant, honestly.”

“When you’ve lived as long as I have, there is really not much that can actually shock you.” Charlotte laughed, and pushed over a plate of shortbread cookies. “And that sounds more like my granddaughter. She was always fond of places where she could show off her dancing abilities.” A wicked sparkle came into the old woman’s eyes. “If she takes too long, I can probably pull out a few tapes her father made of her dance performances when she was little.”

[mothahofinvention]

groundedxdreamer‌:

Yeah, okay, he was a little nervous, sure, but it was, truly, a cozy-looking house. Classic grandparent move, right there. As York nursed the glass of tea in his hands and gave it an experimental sip (ooh, yeah, that was pretty damn sweet), he swallowed nervously.

Right. How they met. At a nightclub followed by a one-night stand followed by them both incidentally going into the same secret military project. Totally the kind of tale to tell your future grandmother-in-law. That was a thing, right?

“Oh! Uh, she said hi to me at a… restaurant! We hit it off really well, as it turned out, and we both ended up going into the same job as coworkers.”

He… wasn’t sure how much Charlotte knew about Project Freelancer, but he figured he’d keep it vague for now.

She raised an eyebrow, not even looking at the needles vigorously clicking away. “So you were also involved in Leonard’s project?” she asked, sounding almost amused. “I’m not as big a fan of secrecy as my son is, dear, you dont have to be so obtuse about things.” Although, she could have wished that Katelyn had settled down with someone outside the military. The UNSC and the war had brought their family nothing but grief for generations. 

“And we’re all grown-ups. You dont need to try and sugar coat anything for little old me. Katie’s grandfather? Probably. But not me.”

[mothahofinvention]

thestupidmeanone‌:

Oh no, he really was Leonard Church Junior! That was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. “Yeah, turns out I was kind of a big secret, so… go figure.”

Would it be impolite to go into the mental torture thing? Probably, yeah.

“Indeed. Leo likes his secretive little projects,” she agreed dryly. Charlotte was aware of Project Freelancer. It had been fairly big news at the time, and while she’d only learned the public information, she knew her son well enough to extrapolate. 

“Well, Junior, it seems that you and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

[mothahofinvention]

thestupidmeanone‌:

Yeah, this was exactly what he imagined a grandmother’s house to look like. He’d call it stereotypical, but that implied that it was a bad thing.

“Er… my name?” Shit, that would be a little awkward here, wouldn’t it? Church rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “Well… technically, it’s Epsilon, but I sort of… ‘inherited’ the whole ‘Leonard Church’ thing from your son, and all my friends just call me Church, so… take your pick, I guess?”

She let out a small laugh, a tinkling bright little sound, and sat down. “Well I’ll be damned. Leonard Church Junior. I really do wish he’d keep me informed on when he creates a child.”

[mothahofinvention]

groundedxdreamer‌:

“Yeah, she’ll be here in a minute. I ran ahead a bit.” He couldn’t believe he had outraced Lina anywhere, actually, but maybe she was just a little more reluctant to introduce her boyfriend to her grandmother. Maybe she’d feel better if he turned on the charm and politeness a little.

“And might I say: I love this house! Very cozy-looking.”

Charlotte had to hide her smile as she sat York down in the living room and left him a moment to collect tea and a plate of cookies (grandmas always had cookies, it was a law). Something about the way the boy was talking told her that he was pretty nervous, which was a good sign. It meant that he was trying.

When she came back in and handed him a glass of powerfully sweetened iced tea, she sat down in a comfy looking rocker, and picked up some truly intimidatingly large knitting needles. “So tell me how you and Katie met.”