After - The Society Fanfic.

19.

Gwen sat nervously in the café. It's pretty empty these days. After Cassandra introduced food rationing, they collected the food from here to add to the supplies. You're allowed to take some out with your rations to have some fancy coffee, but most don't. Gwen had brought some tea bags from home. She knows from numerous tv shows she used to watch that caffeine is bad when it comes to a pregnant woman but she's unsure about when it comes to just-given-birth women. She thought she'd bring green tea just in case. She'd also brought some brownies. They were made form a box but still tasted nice. She's kinda glad she has spare rations to be able to use for this, otherwise, it'd just be a really awkward meeting. At least with snacks, it's like a peace offering, an olive branch.

Grizz had slept in this morning so she knew she wouldn't have to worry about him randomly showing up. He's been having some restless nights recently. Gwen sometimes gets told but he's not the lightest on his feet and when he goes to get a glass of water in the middle of the night, he wakes up most of the house. The team had been staying at Allie's due to how close the trial was. It's all-hands-on-deck. The fact that Gwen carved this amount of time out to create this meeting surprised her. She's been questioning individuals, learning about crops and the theory behind cutting down a tree without killing yourself. Which she was surprised to learn is a lot more difficult than chop, chop done. Grizz had found himself using all of his patience abilities that day as he explained it over and over to her. She is smart, it's just, like anyone, when you are just bombarded with information for six hours straight, having spent half the night reading books, you just stop taking stuff in. She got it eventually. She could have sworn Grizz had been close to weeping. But all of this, plus this personal drama, was the cause of the insomnia. His head's always on at the moment. Gwen bets Sam would help turn it off.

She shifts the tea pot slightly, checking it's still hot. It is. Gwen glances at her phone. 12:10. Ten minutes late. Her foot starts to tap, and she stares out the window. She hopes Clark doesn't see her here. It looks like she's being stood up.

As Gwen stands, preparing to pack up and leave, Kelly and Becca turn the corner. Both wrapped up warm with thick jackets. Becca pushes Eden in the pram. She stops, locking eyes with Gwen. Gwen waves enthusiastically. Gwen can't help but laugh to herself as she watches Kelly try and coax Becca inside. Becca is not impressed. She's assuming that Becca figured out that Gwen knew what happened. Eventually, Kelly manages to get her inside.

"Hi, Becca. Kelly. What a surprise to see you guys here? Tea? Brownie?" She pushes the brownie across the table. Becca's stony face is unchanged. Kelly happily takes a brownie. "Please. Sit." Gwen sits, a smile plastered on her face. She's hoping it's coming across as gentle and serene.

It was not. Becca quite frankly thought Gwen looked slightly psychotic. She hadn't blinked in a while. She glances towards Kelly, who nods. With a hand on her hip, she raises an eyebrow at Kelly. "So, you knew too?" Kelly's genuine confusion suggests she didn't. So why was she helping Gwen? "You didn't know? Then why...?" She sits and eyes Gwen, pursing her lips. "You're very manipulative." Gwen smiles widely, shrugging.

"Not really. People just know when I'm serious. I really needed to talk to you, but I knew you wouldn't come to meet me. I'd figure you'd guess Grizz would tell me," Kelly glances between Becca and Gwen. Entirely at a loss at what was happening right now. She's hoping she can pick up on the story as she listens. Hastily, she sits next to Gwen, who glances sideways at her, unsure how to proceed without spilling everyone's secrets. "So I recruited Kelly to get you to meet me. She literally knows nothing. Like zilch." She starts pouring the tea. Kelly doesn't get a cup. A frown is shot in Gwen's direction. Gwen puts on a guilty expression. "So, there's a lot of sensitive information that I really don't want to say in front of you so do you-"