(Untitled)

[nostoppinglife]

It's frustrating, there's no two ways around it. Moira knows the time she spends in the lab or up to her elbows in books and notes is as much a defense mechanism as it is about finding any real answer to this place; it's about feeling she's doing something, not just sitting around idle and miserable. There are people here she cares about, people

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[withoutasea]

Ygraine is quick to help, rushing away from Jenny in her eagerness. Her mother follows in her wake, in jeans, today, an open collared white shirt. She might be a woman from any time in history. She sees her friend and smiles, bending to take the pages from Ygraine, smoothing out marks left by little hands.

"Do you struggle, dearest?" she asks her friend, squinting up her. "Too much to learn, in your mortal days?"

[nostoppinglife]

"Always too much," Moira agrees, smiling when she looks up to see a familiar face. The few new friends she's made are the one thing she knows of to make this island worthwhile. "And never enough time - except here, where it seems we've nothin' but time." She reaches out to ruffle Ygraine's hair. "Thank ye, darlin'."

[withoutasea]

Ygraine squeals and grasps for Moira's hands. Usually a solemn child, but she's given to sudden joyful days. Jenny cradles the sheath of papers against her chest.

"Will you take your ease with us, perhaps? A little quiet."

[nostoppinglife]

"Aye, I'd like that." Moira's fond of Jenny, but when Ygraine lights up like that, it's difficult not to let the girl have all her attention.

"Quiet in company might be just what I need." It has to be better, at least, then just being in her own head. "Where were ye headed?"

[det_jules]

Juliet kind of loved helping people. It gave her an innate sense of goodness and made her feel like she was owed some good karma. Most of all, it let her be friendly and Juliet loved being the kind of girl who was easy to be friends with. "Sure!" she agreed with a grin, already crouching down to start piling papers up. "Anything juicy in here?"

[nostoppinglife]

"Thanks," Moira said, gathering what she could reach and adding them to the few she was still holding. It served her right for having so many loose sheets of paper. She smiled at the blonde, shaking her head as she straightened up. "An' no, I'm afraid nae, unless yuir idea of juicy involves notes on fluctuations and patterns in the local population."

[det_jules]

"I just may find that very interesting," she admitted and once she had amassed as many papers as she could, she stuck her hand out, eager to make a good introduction. "I'm Juliet O'Hara," she said warmly. "And I'm on the IPD here. I would love to hear your thoughts on population patterns."

[nostoppinglife]

Brow raising a little, Moira smiled, shifting her own pile to the crook of one arm so she could shake Juliet's hand. "Dr. Moira MacTaggert," she said, "an' I'm workin' for m'self, I suppose, but I cannae say as I ever mind talkin' about it."

[sortofaman]

He had to get out of the house. Dear Rassilon's hairy arse, he needed to get out of the house, because if Chase gave him that chipper Everything Is All Right look again, he was going to go utterly mental.

So the Doctor had scooped up his son, brought him to daycare, and then made himself some very strong tea, intending to sit on the compound steps and drink it. (Ideally, the tea would solve things. If not, well, tannins and free radicals.) Unfortunately, it appeared someone had beaten him to the steps, and scattered paper onto the lawn. Someone irrepressibly Scottish, which was probably why he did stop to help instead of being utterly piqued by the usurper of the stairs.

"Sure as," he responded, and set down his mug to pick up the errant sheets.

[nostoppinglife]

"Thank ye," Moira said, stooping down to assist, what remained of her collection held in the crook of one arm. It was a bit embarrassing, honestly, to be caught going off in some idiotic daze like that, as if this island weren't already rife with occasions on which to feel like a fool. Some days, just being here was humiliating enough, all her friends looking at her like there was something she didn't know, everyone aware of what she'd lost coming here. "That's what I get for jus' standin' about like that. Oh, I didnae mean t' go an' disturb ye when ye've got yuir tea an' all."

[sortofaman]

"Och, dinnae think anythin of it," said the Doctor, slipping into Dr James McCrimmon of Balamory (or possibly Jamie McCrimmon of Clan McLaren, not that he'd admit it) before he could realise he'd done it in automatic response to her brogue. "Er, I mean," he cleared his throat, "er, don't worry about it. I wasn't really going much of anywhere. Welcome distraction."

Collating the papers, he handed them back to her with a sheepish grin. "And sorry, I wasn't mocking you. Just had a friend who talked that way, start to pick it up without thinking on it."

[nostoppinglife]

Startled by the shift at first, Moira could only shake her head and chuckle at the slip. "So I heard," she said lightly, taking the sheaf of papers from him and grinning. She'd been faced with that more than a few times by the others, though generally with more intent or from Jamie Madrox, who was usually a class unto himself. "Given that ye've been a help, I'll forgive it. Besides, ye do it a sight better than most o' the people I've heard that out of. Nae bad at all."

[thebonelady]

Temperance thought that, even in her poor grasp of the subtleties of human emotion and expression, she might have know the feeling. She stooped easily and picked up the papers, putting them back in order without much real reading. "Of course not," she said. "Here. Research on anything specific?"

She herself could attest to going through her own files several times a month.

[nostoppinglife]

Moira accepted the pile with a smile, adding them to those she still held and had collected. She rather liked Dr. Brennan, from what she'd seen of her around the lab. "Thank ye. Anythin' I can find on the island population," she said. "I might nae be able t' see a way out o' here, but there may be patterns in the comin's and goin's. An' if nae, it keeps me busy. How are ye, Temperance?"

[thebonelady]

"The same," Temperance said, though the mention of keeping track of the patterns here brought her a smile. "If you get really bored, you can cross-reference your notes with mine. I have a couple years worth before I found it statistically futile to continue."

She shrugged. "Mathematics just loses some of its charm without skeletal remains corresponding."

[nostoppinglife]

"For you, perhaps," Moira said lightly. But that made sense, with their respective fields, she was sure. "I'd like that. I dinnae imagine it can be much help, what I've found, but it cannae hurt either." She'd go mad without it either way. Even with her tendency toward seclusion, she was meant for a busier life than this.

[nostoppinglife]

It was, certainly, less clumsiness and more carelessness on Moira's part, so absorbed in her own thoughts. She'd always possessed a certain grace, as well as a perfectionism, the combination of which made silly little mistakes like this particularly galling.

Still she offered the man a small smile as she reached for her papers. It simply was not in her nature to confess her worries and unhappiness when first asked, even by her loved ones, but she saw no reason to be rude. "Quite," she said, adding them to the pile of those she had collected herself and still held, "only distracted, I'm afraid. Thank ye for the help, I appreciate it."

[nostoppinglife]

"That depends," said Moira dryly, "would ye happen t' have the answer t' this place?" The product of a rather genteel, if tomboyish, childhood and a much rougher set of adult years, she never had taken well to being told what to do, however well the words may have been meant (and so, she wondered, how had she and Charles ever made it even as far as they did with their romance?). And yet there was a kind of absence of intent here, a bluntness, which suggested, at least to her, more social awkwardness than merely a sense of superiority (possibly present as well). She had much less problem with that and she had encountered worse.

Of course, she didn't expect the stranger to have an answer, and if he had, she might even have been miffed to hear it. At this point in the project, it seemed almost a matter of pride that she find her own way out.