(Untitled)

[lastof_five]

The rain had faded away approximately a week before but Helen hadn't really had the chance to get out in the sun and just enjoy it. First, it was wanting to finish a book she'd found in the Compound, then it was clinic duties...but on a Sunday afternoon, even she had to admit there was very little in the way of work she could contrive. She had,

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[inabmovie]

Now that was a surprise--Magnus in a swimsuit--and Will coughed a little, more shocked by that than he'd been over the shorts a while back. "Yeah, that's what I'd say," he said quickly, to cover the cough. He started to add especially since there's no work here but he thought that remind her of the squid and scorpion on the other side of the island, so he didn't.

[lastof_five]

"Of course it is," Helen said pleasantly, looking up at him. "You're always inclined to tell me to stop doing something if it looks like I'm working too hard."

[inabmovie]

"Because you usually are." He flopped down beside her and leaned over to see what she was reading. "Oh, Lord of the Rings. I saw the movie, but couldn't make it through the book." He'd always felt guilty about that, but the writing was just too dense. Will was a bookaholic, and loved to read, but that was one series he just couldn't make it through.

[lastof_five]

"John was always a bit dry," Helen said, nodding a little. "Brilliant professor though. One of the best in the twentieth century, by far."

[natureofsecrets]

Some people might shy from interrupting a stranger with a book, but with no real plans for his walk, no ultimate destination for the day or purpose for his trip to the beach other than to get some exercise and some sun, Morgan finds himself wanting to say hello to someone he hasn't spent most of last month cooped up with.

The bathing suit she's wearing doesn't hurt either, and he allows himself the idea that the book is just to stave off boredom, the kind of thing one would be happy to put down if given another distraction. Noting the title only strengthens the assumption, and the only thing that gives him pause on his way over is her laugh, the words directed at herself that, for a moment, he thought were for him. It postpones his greeting and, as he wanders closer to her, begs the question, "Does this place offer a lot of jobs that involve hobbits?"

[lastof_five]

Helen laughed a little and looked up, slightly nervous at being caught talking to herself. Man likely thought she was daft, but then again, Will had never said as much. He was a psychiatrist...surely he was most capable of determining that.

"Ah, no. I wish it did and perhaps I wouldn't seem so aimless. Hobbits, I can work with. It's mysterious islands that seem to give me pause."

[natureofsecrets]

"I think I'd have to give a little pause over hobbits, though I think they're a possibility here." Considering the werewolves, vampires, and superheroes running around, he's braced with every new arrival for another round of Reid's excited babbling about the childhood figures he's just met.

There's a bit less of it now, though, now that he's married to one of them.

"Derek Morgan," he asserts, rounding back to his original intent with a smile and a hand offered down for her to shake.

[lastof_five]

Helen shook his hand firmly, committing the name to memory as she had the few others she'd met in her short weeks on the island. She really ought to be more social, considering this might be a long-term stay and connections would need to be forged for survival's sake, but for now she'd been reserved about whose company she'd kept.

"Dr. Helen Magnus. I'm charmed to make your acquaintance, though I wish for both our sakes it wasn't on a godforsaken deserted island."

[theunascended]

"Isn't that always harder than it seems?" Loki was down at the water examining the crustaceans and Daniel was just ambling along after him. He whistled sharply when he stopped, so that she wouldn't go too far. "I always get lost in my own work, even here when there's not as much that I can actually do." Teach. And more teaching.

"Hello, Dr. Magnus. I promise I don't think you're Sam this time."

[lastof_five]

"Hello, Dr. Jackson," Helen said pleasantly, smiling up at him. "I promise not to think you're my friend Jimmy this go around and I think we'll be better for it. Out for an afternoon walk?"

[theunascended]

Daniel nodded down at the water's edge. "Loki takes after her namesake. She's a troublemaker if she doesn't get what she wants and what she wanted was a walk. How does..." He looked down at her book and his eyebrows rose. "How does Tolkien seem like work?" Come to think of it, he wasn't sure what her doctorate was in.

[lastof_five]

"Well, I was overanalysing," Helen admitted, blushing a little. "I have a tendency to think too much, even when I'm trying to relax."

[stormweathered]

"Well, if you're in the midst of the second book and reading a loveletter to trees, I can safely say that you are both reading and working," Castle appraised, taking in the cover of the book that she was reading. "I love the man, really, truly," Castle insisted, hand over his heart. "But I just don't want to love trees the way he does."

[lastof_five]

"He was very fond of the environment, John," Helen said idly, closing the book to look up at the new arrival. "To his detriment in some debates, I'm sure, but we never discussed anything of the sort."

[stormweathered]

Castle stopped, that very moment, and started gravitating towards the woman. "Hold on, back up," he clarified, finger up in the air to make sure that he wasn't just making things up with his overactive imagination, because he definitely did have issues with that. "Does this mean you've had debates with him?"

[lastof_five]

"Quite a few, actually," Helen said, giving the man a quick smile and flash of dimple. "He was a spirited debater, especially when Lewis came 'round to discuss religion. I'm not much for religion myself, but those two could go on for ages about it."

[anger_sideways]

When it had been raining, Hawkeye had been desperate to be able to get back outdoors again. Now he was able to, he found he didn't have much to do when he was out there. He'd spent much of the afternoon ambling by the water's edge, looking for interesting things that might have washed up on the shore and skimming stones around the morning. It reminded him of summers back home in Maine, loitering by the seashore and annoying the fishermen.

He slowed his pace a little when he caught sight of an attractive woman in a swimsuit sunning herself by the beach. She said something Hawkeye could only just catch.

"Working? I wasn't aware people round here paid you to sit on the beach and look out to sea," he said, coming to a stop behind her. "Who's your boss? I think I'd like a piece of that."

[lastof_five]

"I'm my own boss, actually," Helen said, smiling up at the newcomer. "And I've been told I work far too hard, but I think it's just a difference of opinion. I merely like to see beyond the veneers of everyday life and think deeper than base wants and needs."

She gestured toward the book. "That said, I think I'm reading too much into the book and not enjoying it."

[anger_sideways]

Hawkeye himself preferred not to think deeper than base wants and needs, because it usually made him feel rather depressed. Still, he liked a woman with smarts; the clever ones were the best at keeping up with him.

"So what are you reading?" he said, crouching down and peering round so he could read the cover. "'The Lord of the Rings'? So it's about an aristocrat who collects jewellery? No wonder you're bored."

[lastof_five]

"Not exactly," Helen said, laughing again. This man had quite the quick wit; that was always a positive quality.

"It's about a ring of absolute power and the way it corrupts those around it. Interesting allegory for life and everything after, I suppose, if you're going to read into it. The author didn't intend for it to be interpreted that way, but it happened anyway."

She tilted her head a little and assessed the other man. "Do you offer a cure for boredom, then?"