'energizing the base': ur doing it wrong [RP for Peter Webster]

[ifwebefriends]

New York out the window, a bit of cloud cover but not rain, which Robin found vaguely depressing. If he was in London it'd be rain. Rain down the windows, rain turning the City, his city, grey and wet and cold and prompting him to make plans for Los Angeles or Cyprus and yet, down at the core of his quintessentially British self, loving it because

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[half_whole_pw]

Grace had been sitting in the kitchen, entertaining Rainy as the maid prepared dinner for the Webster family. Entertaining her with an exaggerated retelling of Peter's weekend flip-out. Then the phone rang and it was someone for Pete. Someone who sounded very, very sophisticated to Grace as she sat there sucking chocolate frosting off her fingers. Lorraine should know better than to leave dessert out on the counter, really.

"Um, yeah...no. Pete's at work. You should try his cell. You got that number?" Another lick, a thought and then a rolling of her eyes. "No, wait...he's in the lab, you'll have to page him. The geek squad isn't allowed to have cell phones in there for some nerdling reason."

The joys of being sixteen, she could be informative and clueless all a the same time.

[ifwebefriends]

A girl answered the phone. Certainly not Peter Webster. Robin shifted mental gears based on estimates of her age, and, from what she said, the image he was forming of Peter Webster as well.

"Oh, dear, I'm afraid I don't have either his mobile or his pager. I hate to be a bother, but I don't suppose I could trouble you for the numbers? If I'm not interrupting anything too important," Robin said, and added, "And I'm very sorry, I didn't catch your name, miss?"

British accent and all the considerable charm he can put into it? Check.

[half_whole_pw]

"Grace." She shrugged and scooted out of the way of Rainy and a hot frying pan. What was Pete's pager number again? It was something the hospital assigned him...shit. Grace moved to the message center area in the kitchen (mom was very anal about that) and began rifling through things. "Yeah, sure. What are you, his new boyfriend or hook up or something? I thought he was back with Josh--anyway, his cell number is..." She rambled off the digits before giving Robin a chance to respond and without asking if he was actually ready to write them down.

And there was the pager number. She offered that up as well. "If he doesn't answer you can just call Sloan Kettering and ask the switchboard for Oncology. He's the only Webster there."

Not quite true, their aunt was on staff but she'd never taken back her maiden name after her divorce. "Hey, Rainy, can we not have dill sauce with the salmon? It always looks like baby barf or something gross." Attention span of a goldfish. "Oh, hey, sorry. Did you get those numbers for Pete?"

[ifwebefriends]

Fortunately Robin had a good memory for things he actually bothered to listen to. He noted the numbers, scrawled them down on a pad while listening bemusedly to 'Grace' talk about-- food, apparently-- to someone else, and smiled. One can hear a smile even if one cannot see it; it's always good practice.

"Yes, I did, thank you Grace, you've been quite helpful. I am not Peter's boyfriend, merely someone trying to get hold of him for the usual boring business nonsense we have to deal with in this world. Could I stress your patience by asking you one more thing, Grace-- do you think now would be a good time for me to try and reach Peter? Or should I wait until later and try the mobile?"