Starring:
Summary: Meryl gets to meet Benjamin's Mother. Be afraid.
Date It Happened: September 15th, 2008
Log Title Are You My Mummy?
Greenwich - Winters's Apartment
The Greenwich apartment that's been Benjamin's home for about twenty years is in an uproar. There are boxes, and the place is in a definite state of transition for a move. A house has been decided upon and the apartment will be vacated soon enough. Aside from the moving uproar, there are also notebooks, catalogues, all wedding related. There's a stark difference in whose notes are whose. Now that Meryl's said yes, the wedding is on, and what's left is to introduce her to … his mother. This could go very bad, or very well. Being a fairly smart man, Benjamin's decided to hold the meeting here in the privacy of the apartment. Meryl's just unpredictable and his mother's theatrical. It's just safer for all parties to do things this way.
There's a lasagna in the oven, some garlic bread toasting, wine chilling. For dessert, Ben picked up some rich ice cream from an upscale parlor. While he waits for the lasagna to finish baking and his mother to arrive, he's trying to tidy up the mess as best he can.
And Meryl picked up some chocolate sauce for the ice cream. Except it's on the lasagna, which is in the oven. So along with the scent of delicious tomatoes and cheese is… roasting chocolate.
The other half of the bottle of chocolate sauce is in the fridge.
Meryl's not entirely without some decorum, though. She's actually dressed nicely. For once, it's not all black, which seems out of place on the woman. The green polo shirt and khakis make her look… quite innocent, actually. Perhaps this isn't the Meryl Benjamin knows! Perhaps this isn't the Company agent who has—
"We're out of ice cream!" she calls cheerfully from the direction of Basil's cage. Because the entire tub of upscale ice cream is inside of it, with a very happy guinea pig sitting on top.
In the middle of setting the table, Ben stops, sniffs and looks towards the kitchen. This coincides with Meryl announcing they're out of ice cream. He sighs.. and grabs some hot pads. The ruined lasagna is removed from the oven and set on top of the stove.
Fortunately, he's been with Meryl long enough to be prepared. From the fridge, he pulls out the backup pan of lasagna and sets it in the oven. The timer's reset and he starts rifling through the cabinets for backup dessert. Damn. He overlooked that. "So I see," he calls out when Meryl makes her announcement. "Uhm, mom'll be here any minute.. and can Basil even /eat/ ice cream?" He's not sure it's healthy for a guinea pig or not! "Maybe we'll just go to Coldstone afterwards if we want ice cream." He wasn't expecting Meryl to dress up to the nine's and she looks just fine to him. Ben takes a moment to smile at his fiancee.
That lasagna is not ruined. It's still perfectly edible as far as Meryl's concerned, and she makes a face at Ben as he takes her genius recipe out of the oven. "I don't imagine they can," she says, poking at Basil. "Well, you know, if I take it out of the cage now, we could scrape the top layer off an' still use it. I mean, for three of us… Shoo. G'on, Basil." She pushes the 'pig off the expensive dessert and pulls it out of the cage. And carefully picks off the newly-added 'sprinkles' and puts those back into the cage. "See? No 'arm done. Here." Proudly, she holds the tub out to Benjamin.
If she seems slightly over-the-top today, it's because she's pretty much crazy with nervousness. Meeting parent? Even Meryl knows this is a Big Deal and she could totally ruin everything. And the fact that the smile on her face makes her look like she's in pain kind of exemplifies that. "What if she shoots me!?"
Benjamin errs.. and takes the tub of ice cream. Yeah, totally not eating that. The 'ruined' lasagna is left on the stove. If Meryl wants that, she can have it. The tub is set on the counter before he turns to face Meryl. Smiling, he puts his hands on Meryl's shoulders and leans in to give her a kiss on the forehead. "Mom won't shoot you. She doesn't have a gun." There's a brief pause as he looks uncertain, "That I know of anyway. Don't worry, mom'll like you just fine."
Speaking of the devil, or is this right on cue? There's the sound of a key scraping the lock and the door opens. "Benji honey, I'm letting myself in," Margie announces as she bustles into the room. The chaotic order of the apartment is ignored as she hustles on over to the pair, "You must be Meryl! Benji's talked so much about you!" Yes, she's gushing, and tears are already shining in her eyes as she gets a good look at Meryl.
Rubbing cold hands on her shirt, which leaves damp smudges behind from the condensation on the tub of ice cream, Meryl waits. "Right, all right," she mutters. In this moment, she's torn between wanting to go with her instincts and act like she's twelve - which she usually does - and act like an adult.
And there she is.
It's kind of hard for Meryl, because she's got no parents anymore. Or she didn't. Now she does. A mum. And she's surprised by the rush of emotion she feels. Tears, lip quivering, the whole pre-meltdown thing. "Uh." She looks down, then at Ben, then back at mum. She will be mum for eternity, no matter if they love each other or hate each other or KILL EACH OTHER. One never knows. "Yyou're beautiful." Pause. "I I mean— Will you be my mum, too?"
"Mom, can you at least knock? I gave you a key for emergencies.." Benjamin starts, but Margie waves him off and thrusts her purse at him. Benjamin sort of oofs, and looks at the purse as if it were holding bricks. Knowing his mother, this is probably the case. Before he can give introductions, Margie is utterly won over. Already. "Benjamin should have met you first! I'm Margie, but yes, you can call me mum!" And hopefully, Meryl doesn't have trouble with her personal space invaded, because Margie's moving in to enfold her new daughter-in-law to be like a long lost child.
Ben looks just a little embarrassed as he puts his mother's purse away for her. "Ah, mom.." Too late, she's going in for the hug. Which he takes as a good sign. There was open hostility from first glance with Eileen. "This is Meryl."
"Shush Benji, I know who she is." Margie calls.
Meryl forgets her own strength at times, but she gets the feeling that Margie can handle a big bear hug, which is exactly what she gets. Because by now, Meryl's eyes are red and teary and she's pretty much bawling. "'aven't 'ad a mum since I was little," she says, sparing the details from the non-Company initiated. She has a really convincing cover story, if questions are asked, but in this world, it's hardly a surprise if people don't have a parent.
There might be sniffles.
"Bingo and I made chocolate lasagna," she says. "It's really good. I mean, I 'aven't ever tried it, but I imagine chocolate makes everything better. We should go shopping!"
Benjamin fidgets a little off to the side at the weepy women. Oh jeez. He was hoping they'd get on, but who can stand weepy women anyway? "We also have plain lasagna too," he says helpfully, unsure of how his mum'll handle Meryl's eccentricities.
"Shush Benji, finish setting the table for us.. and why isn't Rose here? She has her moments, but she is such a talented dear," Margie says as she lets go of Meryl. She didn't mind the bear hug at all and she raises a hand to brush at Meryl's hair in a very motherly gesture. "Well you've got another one now.. and chocolate on lasagna? I never would have thought of such a thing. You'll be so good for Benjamin, he doesn't have much of an imagination you know. He needs to learn to live a little." "Mom.. please.." "Mother's talking, honey. I would love to go shopping with you. I can help with the wedding, and I know of a lovely seamstress who can work with the dress. She's retired from the theater, but still sews on commission!"
At least Christmases will be interesting.
This is everything she wanted a mother to be. lovable, friendly, not driven insane by some madman bent on her destruction. Conscious. It's really the little things that matter, when you really get to thinking about them. "Bloody emotions," she mutters. "I 'ad a speech prepared n' everything, mum, but— " She chuckles. "Can you believe I forgot it? I'll have to give it later." Probably at some weird time when they're trying on wedding dresses or something. That poor seamstress will get a lovely heaping portion of Meryl's crazy.
Pushing away from Margie and rubbing at her eyes, she appears quite confused. "Dress? Dress! Oh, for the wedding!!" Turning, she leaps right at Benjamin, whether or not he's ready. "Guess what, mum! We're getting married. This is my fiancee, Bingo."
No joke, right? Between Benjamin, Meryl, Margie, and maybe Rose, there'll never be a dull moment.
"That's okay dear," Margie says, just absolutely fawning over Meryl. "You can tell me when you remember it." She ushers Meryl off towards the dining room table, "Ben! Our chairs won't pull themselves out!" Yes, she's overbearing, a bit pushy, but mainly all of this is to tease her grown son. It works too.
In the middle of pulling out two chairs from the table, Ben is leapt at by Meryl, and he actually jumps slightly. He doesn't bother to tell Meryl that he's pretty sure his mother knows what's going on and what his name is.
Margie isn't bothered by Meryl in the slightest. "That's a nickname I never thought of using for Benji! Come now dear, have a seat and tell me about yourself!" She deposits herself in a chair at the table.
"I'll remember it one day," Meryl says wistfully. She's used to grasping at straw-like memories that sometimes float away in the breezy area she has to call a brain. For a moment, she looks upward and to the right, as if day-dreaming, and then she's back, nestled in Benjamin's arms. "I love you," she says, kissing his forehead, before disentangling herself from his arms.
Tell Margie about herself.
Tell?
That panicked look crosses her face again. She's not sure if she's allowed to lie to Ben's mother. Or if she should not lie. She's never had a family to not tell her life's story to, so she didn't pay attention to Question 19 (IS IT OKAY TO TELL YOUR FAMILY? Y/N) on the Company Secrecy Test. CRAP. Okay, she can play this cool. She is smooth and adaptive. She'll feel it out, ask all the right question. "Ben, am I allowed t'tell 'er that you put people to sleep?"
Benjamin smiles at Meryl, giving her a good squeeze before she untangles herself. "You two talk, I'll check on dinner and get drinks." From the kitchen, there's a crash of a plate breaking as it's dropped. That would be a no. He's also waving frantically in Meryl's line of sight, hopefully out of his mother's. NO!
Margie doesn't seem to think much of this, so she laughs merrily. "I know Ben always says he's boring, and said that horrid ex-wife of his was always falling asleep on him. He just doesn't have much confidence in himself. My poor boy. Of course, he did spend over ten year married to a total bitch. That didn't help him.. Ben, do stop waving like that, you look as if you're directing air traffic."
"Oh," is Meryl's answer. Okay, so by that, she can safely assume that talking about the Company is off-limits. Right! But her whole life is the Company. So finding something to talk about that's safe is going to be difficult.
Luckily, Meryl is creative.
"Nah, he's not boring. Just makes me feel safe." She looks over her shoulder at Ben, smiling. "Sometimes I feel like I'm going a hundred miles an hour, and there's my guy, just… There. Helps me sleep when I can't. I—
Make something up. Something close to the truth.
"I had an accident when I was younger. Messed with my head a bit, so I had to move from home to the States. Good care here. The rest is kind of a bit of a blur. Then I met Ben, and he didn't seem to mind my crazy so much." Sure, at first they kind of butted heads, and he got himself brainwashed, and then he kind of knocked her over the head with a table, and she's got a scar under that thick black hair. "And he keeps me grounded, and — sometimes I pull 'im up into the clouds, but I think that's good for both of us." There's a pause here, almost reverant, and then she asks, "Will you be the Maid of Badgers at my wedding??"
There's a faint flush across Benjamin's face as he gets embarrassed. Safe isn't a word he'd use to describe himself. He looks big, mainly it's all height. He's not good in a fight, even with some of what he's been taught by the Company. He's horrible with a gun, although he's gotten /much/ better with his ability. Maybe that's what she means. Thankfully, there's that broken plate, oh look, it needs sweeping up. Which he does.
"See what I mean? No sense of his own worth at all!" Margie is not helping at all. Meryl seems to be mostly what Margie's been hoping for in a daughter in law and for her son. (He was too good for that trashy wench, Eileen.) The little tale and the request seems to be too much, even if she's not sure what Meryl means by Maid of Badgers. Could be something to do with the head trauma. Like a character she got to play once on stage. Couldn't say what she was thinking! At any rate, it's too much and she's up from her chair and throwing her arms around Meryl again, "Of course I will, dear!"
Ben underestimates the effect he has on Meryl. It was a stupid once-in-a-lifetime meeting that shouldn't have ever gone any farther. She meets people, she gets to know them, she likes them, but love, up to this point in her life, was a word she tossed around like a child. She loves those crayons. She loves chocolate-covered lasagna. She loves— Say, Church. But it wasn't until very recently that she figured out what love really is.
No, that's a lie. She loved everything and totally meant it.
All the same, there's an understanding there. Something above and beyond anything she's known before, and that's Benjamin. And that's why he makes her feel safe, even if a light breeze could knock him over.
"Yeah, he's a silly sod," she says with an affectionate glance. And that's when there are arms around her again, and Meryl is smiling, with her face buried in mum's shoulders. So this is what having a family is like! "Don't tell Ben. But him and I? We're gonna have a hundred babies."
Benjamin comes out of the kitchen, bearing some glasses with ice and two cans of coke. Both are set on the table in front of Margie and Meryl, the latter is given a playful sort of nudge with his elbow before he returns to the kitchen. In there, he works on getting plates, that he doesn't break, and checking the lasagna.
"Of course not dear. Between you and me, I think he'll do just fine with a lot of children. It'll help him learn to be spontaneous." Margie's arms squeeze around Meryl before she lets go and returns to her seat. "You're lovely.. of course Ben's first wife had good looks, but she was incredibly cold, and it made her ugly.. Don't you even start Ben," Margie says, shaking a finger at her son when he looks like he's about to protest. She opens up her can of coke and pours it over the ice in her glass. "I don't know why he even thinks to defend her. She didn't want children at all, and I can't tell you how /thrilled/ I was when Rose turned up! I thought I was never going to get grandchildren or even a proper daughter-in-law!" She /beams/ across at Meryl.
Most women wouldn't want to talk about the fiancee's exes. But Meryl… Oh, Meryl is interested. This is like the best thing in the world to her, because she's heard next to nothing about this woman, except that she and Ben were married and Ben popped out a kid. Or something. It's lost in the details. And then, Meryl's eyes cross. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm lovely. I like my nose, but it's kind of big, and when it's humid, I can't do anything with my hair except throw it up in a pony tail - you know. And I guess these are pretty average…" She sticks out her chest. Nice, Meryl.
"But I don't think I have to be lovely, I mean, my job — " Which… is… "A… security guard - I mean, you kind of, have to— Rrrr!" She grits her teeth and growls like a linebacker, and flexes all her muscles. "So lovely isn't part of the — Do you think I am? Ben, did you hear that? I'm lovely." Opening her soda can, she starts forcefully shoving ice cubes from the glass into the can.
"Rose was a surprise, a very pleasant surprise. She's got her own personality, I say she takes right after me.. then again I never met her mother." Here Margie fires a look at Ben, as if it was his fault. Which it was. He's the one who did get drunk at college and produced a kid. "Ben, you should insist she come around more often. She's very musically inclined, and so is Benji. Have you ever gotten him to sing?" Oh boy, here we go. Then Margie's derailing, "No you don't have to, but you are. You're quite lovely and you're beautiful as you are!" There's a laugh and a wink at Meryl, "A nice rack never hurt a gal."
Hopefully, a pause in the embarrassing line of conversation is created when Benjamin finally brings out the plates, then the lasagna and bread. "I've tried to tell you that you're beautiful, Meryl." She just hasn't listened.. or at least hasn't been able to focus on more serious conversations. He serves up the dinner, and uhm, everyone eat! "MOM!" he shouts, a bit horrified at her bluntness.
Oh. Ben mentioned that, she's sure. It's hard to keep track sometimes, since apparently Ben used to be a rabid party animal. MAYBE THERE ARE MORE CHILDREN. Hundreds more! A whole army! "We'll be unstoppable…" she mutters, lost in her own thoughts for quite some time as she imagines a whole bunch of accountants marching upon some important government building! THEY CAN TAKE OVER THE WORLD! How exciting!
"Wh—what? He sings?" HE SINGS! Oh, she's so filing that away for later. But for now, she has to calm her man's nerves.
Standing up from the chair, she puts her hands on Ben's shoulders, leaning forward until her forehead is touching his. By this point, they've gotten to a point where they can hopefully communicate without saying anything, and the look in her eyes is so peaceful… Hell, it's almost like the times that Ben's seen her drugged. "I love this," she says. And then! Then, Meryl bounces back to her seat and puts half the tray of lasagna on her plate. "We're goin' out for ice cream later. Basil ate the stuff Ben got. It wasn't very good, anyway."