OOM: Travelling with Jemma.

[runningred]

Jay leans on the bar, dressed in his scruffy black leathers. His bike parked just inside the door, ready to go.

He grins to Jemma as she joins him. "Ready to go, Princess?"

Comments

[protect_and_survey]

Her reaction is less flustered, but more... resigned. She works for an organization that also employs the likes of Natasha Romanoff - consequently, she's come to recognize comments of that ilk as a sort of... odd and increasingly un-fun teasing, because no one flirts seriously with the SciOps crew.

"Bonjour, monsieur - je ferais mieux de partir, donc je ne ruine pas par conséquent votre divertissement prévue." She replies in polite tones, dusting the dirt off her clothes and tucking her notepad away to better effect an escape.

[runningred]

"Oh la belle dame! Vous pouvez augmenter le plaisir d'une journée comme celle-ci." He laughs warmly, flirting sweetly and genuinely. "Venez surfer avec nous?"

Jay leans against the bike still, listening with a half smile. Jemma seems to be able to handle herself just fine but ready to step in if she wants him to.

[protect_and_survey]

"Oh, non, je ne pouvais pas." She's going into uncharted territory here, and it shows - no one keeps flirting! "Je suis ... nous avons un long voyage à l'avance, et nous devrions vraiment y aller." She goes on retreating, pulling her backpack up onto her shoulders.

[runningred]

Jay waits with the bike, handing her her helmet as the French surfers call after her, promising to be much better company than her smelly biker friend.

Jay laughs and makes a rude gesture as he gets on, waiting for her to settle behind him. "Better luck next time, boys!"

He kicks the bike into gear and moves them back onto the road, whispering her through the helmet mikes. "Been here a few minutes and already making friends." His voice is playfully teasing.

[protect_and_survey]

She's holding on tight, mostly because she isn't at all trusting of the bike to stay between them and the road. Other people do this all the time, however, so it must be at least somewhat doable.

"Oh, they didn't mean anything by it." She demurs, still sounding flustered.

[runningred]

Jay's an accomplished rider and keeps the bike steady and smooth on the road.

He laughs warmly, accelerating a little as they move onto the highway. "Jemma, you're gorgeous. Why wouldn't they try their luck?"

He watches the signs as they ride a perfectly normal highway, the ocean still there on their left. "Breakfast in Rabat?"

[protect_and_survey]

"Sounds like a wonderful idea." She agrees, notably short on opinions about the reasonableness of the taste of surfers. The longer they fail to go tilting into the pavement the more she relaxes, gaining more confidence in the whole bike-riding endeavor.

[runningred]

After a about an hour's ride, he brings them up a small hill to overlook the ancient fortified city of Rabat. The walls that protect and enclose the city date back to the crusade but the city itself is modern and welcoming, just waking for a new day as they slow into the city streets.

He looks around as they slip through streets. "See if you can spot us a nice looking cafe or bakery."

[protect_and_survey]

She stops rambling about the city and it's influence in world pandemics in the past (PhD #2 - epidemiology) and focuses on something of much more current import - coffee.

Coffee, and stretching her legs - she's just not used to this sort of thing yet.

"Over there, on the right - they seem popular." When in doubt, follow the local tastes. It's saved her and Fitz a lot of trouble with SHIELD-based cafeterias. (Hint: never get the meatloaf)

[runningred]

Jay bring the bike around and parks it out front, shooing away a couple of kids who run over to eye it off. He offers Jemma a hand to get down. He knows how easy it is to get stiff while riding.

"I don't know about you but I could kill for a coffee." He finds them a seat outside in the warm morning sun and offers coffee to start in flawless Arabic. "How adventurous are you, food wise? I just tend to go with whatever the local speciality is and see what happens."

[protect_and_survey]

Arabic goes far beyond her boarding-school language abilities, so she just focuses on smiling when smiled at and not offending anybody.

And enjoying the sunlight, that's... that's really nice, even if she's pretty sure she's going to burn despite heavy-duty sunblock. The trials and travails of the lab-bound researcher.

"I'm open to most anything, unless it tries to crawl away like something out of an Indiana Jones movie."

[runningred]

It's one of Jay's stronger languages thanks to the League and Talia. He asks for the house special and sips the rich, thick coffee that's brought out to them along with piles of fresh warm bread.

"So, the continent of Africa is that way. South West Europe is that way and the Mediterranean is that way. Where do you want to start?"

[protect_and_survey]

The coffee is amazing, and Jemma hums contentment when sipping it. She is going to be so spoiled for normal coffee when she gets back to the lab.

"Well, there's a necropolis just outside town, and Tangiers isn't too far away." Guess who has been studying maps? She has to keep her reigning status in prepwork. But you do have better local knowledge than I do."

[runningred]

Yeah, Turkey did that to Jay. He can never drink cheap coffee again.

"Sounds like fun. City of the dead and then on to Tangiers. Ah!" He grins as their breakfast arrives, a large tagine of Shakshouka - eggs poaches in a spicy sauce with minced lamb and baked tomatoes. "Fantastic." He used the flat bread to shovel it onto his plate as they're brought mint tea to go with it.

"To tell you the truth, most of my work was much further south in the Congo and Ivory Coast. Not as nice as here, that's for sure but beautiful in it's own harsh way. I was on my way to fly out of Africa for France when the Bar picked me up."

[protect_and_survey]

She mimics his technique with the unfamiliar food, humming her appreciation once she manages to get a bite.

(It takes a couple tries. It's a bit tricky, and the ratio of bread-to-filling is problematic.)

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

[runningred]

Eating it isn't much better but what's the point if you can't have fun and make a mess enjoying something. And there's no lack of bread to slop about with.

"Oh no, you're not interrupting anything. I um... had a few problems on my last job and get my contract terminated. I'm a free agent now."

[protect_and_survey]

"Oh dear, I'm sure you'll find a good employer before too long." She assures him. That, at least, is one thing she's sure she won't have to worry about - between SHIELD's tendency towards secrecy and her own tendency towards rule-obeying, she's highly unlikely to not be employed by SHIELD any time soon.

"Have you been to this area before?"

[runningred]

"Maybe I'll just freelance for a while. It'll be nice to pick and chose my own jobs for a while. Maybe I'll find somewhere to set up my own workshop and just build things."

"No, I haven't. I mostly based myself in Casablanca. The League owned a five star hotel there. It made sense to use the resources at hand." He looks around with a smile. "I have to admit I like it here. The city walls give it a sense of history, of time."

[protect_and_survey]

She nods, curling her hands around the mug of coffee.
"It is like Oxford - it's something grander than oneself, though here there's less chance of being run over by an undergraduate on a bicycle."

[runningred]

Jay laughs warmly and nods to the street full of motorbikes and mopeds as the city wakes up and gets on with its day. "Not bicycles anyway. So what was it like, studying somewhere so grand?"

[protect_and_survey]

"Actually... I didn't. Unlike most English schools, there are many American universities which allow early enrollment. Besides, Oxford would have been a bit close to home."

Aka Jemma Simmons may have gone a bit mad if forced to attend too many more mind-numbing Sunday dinners.

[runningred]

"And you were a child genius who had to graduate at age 14." He teases playfully, aware that he never made it that far.

"So you wanted to get away, see the world or just away from family?"

[protect_and_survey]

"I wanted to study." But being away from family hadn't necessarily been bad. "And I had Fitz with me, of course."

At least her parents had tried to keep up with her, and show an interest in her increasingly esoteric interests. She remembers Fitz's mum as being perpetually bewildered and rather annoyed by the pair of them. There'd been none of that, at least, once they'd established themselves at university.

[runningred]

"One day, I'm actually going to meet this Fitz. How long have you known each other?"

[protect_and_survey]

"Oh... goodness. Years. Just about a decade at this point. And I think you'd like him, his specialty is engineering." And as much as they gave each other hell about their respective life choices in academia, they pretty much only went to each other for help in their respective fields.