Debut - OTA

[tech_geek]

Boredom and Jake Jensen didn't mix well. Kinda like nitrogen triiodide and an unsteady hand--Big fucking boom. As a kid it had gotten him into a lot of trouble. As an adult? Pretty much the exact same thing. Boredom was what had made his eight-year-old self build a parabolic antenna/radio out of kitchen appliances to contact aliens with, his ten-year-old self dig up his backyard in search of dinosaur bones, and his sixteen-year-old-self hack the FBI database. Boredom was what had deconstructed a missile just to see what made it tick, had changed Cougar’s records to say he’d had all his training at a secret Jedi stronghold, and had taken apart a General’s car for the spare parts needed to make a high-powered laser death ray. And that was just to name a few things.

Jensen was someone who always needed to be doing something, so it didn’t take much for boredom to kick in. All it took was a spare minute or two where he was alone with nothing to do. He’d get twitchy, restless. The ideas would start coming and then one of them would stick. It would nag and tempt. He’d know it wasn’t something he should be doing. He’d know the idea could get him into trouble, but the lure of it, the promise of figuring out how something worked, of creating something, of taking something broken and making it whole again, of accomplishing something instead of being such a monumental fuck-up would be too much to say no to. So he wouldn’t.

Unfortunately, right now, Jensen was at work. Most days it wasn’t so bad. The coffee shop usually had a steady flow of customers, so it was difficult to get well and truly bored. But today was a slow day. Maybe it was the weather, the rain was coming down so hard it looked like a sheet of water, or maybe it was just shit luck. He supposed he shouldn’t complain. Of all the places he could be, London wasn’t the worst. He could have ended up ass-deep in the Hindu Kush without an internet connection--Now that would have sucked.

Comments

[dr_spencer_reid]

"It worked this morning," Spencer said, tapping the space bar, then flinching when it beeped again.

"I don't understand why students need to email me. I have an office, they could call or walk in..."

He frowned, then glanced over at the man. "Sorry. Am I disturbing people? I can go if I am," he offered, looking awkward and embarrassed.

[tech_geek]

“Nah, you’re good, dude,” Jensen answered. He wasn’t being that loud really, and the place was practically empty anyway.

Wiping his hands on a towel, Jensen turned to him and gestured at the laptop, “Want me to take a look at it? I’m good with computers.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"No- I mean... Maybe, actually. ...If you're sure you don't mind," he added quickly.

[tech_geek]

Abandoning the half-cleaned table and the no-longer-empty tub that sat on top of it, Jensen came over to where Broken Computer Dude sat. It was an easy fix, but, fuck, if he wasn’t itching for it. He felt fucking eager to be doing some kind of work with computers again.

“Don’t mind at all!” Jensen said cheerily and then gestured at the guy. “Scooch.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

Spencer didn't generally share his personal space with people who he didn't know well, and he looked a little uneasy as he nodded and moved over.

There were many things about Spencer that someone might pick up on- The way he struggled to maintain eye contact, and instead faked it by looking just past whoever he was talking to, or the way he wore his watch over his shirt sleeve, so he wouldn't feel it against his skin. Tiny quirks that painted a broader picture when pieced together.

"Oh, um, okay," he said awkwardly, fidgeting a bit as he tried to stay out of the man's way.

[tech_geek]

All it took were a few quick keystrokes to fix the problem. The laptop rebooted, clicking and whirring happily as it loaded. He loved that sound.
 
“There,” Jensen said, grinning and stepping back. “All good. Johnny 5 is alive.” He gestured at it. “If it, uh, ever happens again, just hold down the power button until it reboots. A black screen will come up and one of the options it’ll give you is ‘start Windows normally’. Pick that one and you won’t have a problem.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"Who is alive?" Spencer asked, the pop culture reference sailing right over his head. Though the confusion only lasted a moment as the laptop chimed to let him know it was working again.

"Oh. Thank you," he said, brightening instantly as his laptop finally booted. "I was worried I'd have to take it to one of the computer science professors again. ...I don't think they like me very much."

[tech_geek]

“Pardon my completely unprofessional language, but they sound like dicks,” was Jensen’s response. He returned to the table he’d been cleaning before handling the computer emergency and went back to work. “So, what’s your name? Might be kinda awkward if next time I see you I call you Broken Computer Guy.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"Oh, right, sorry- I'm Dr. Spencer Reid," he offered, looking a little embarrassed as he offered a small wave and a smile. "What's your name?"

[tech_geek]

Jensen pointed to his nametag. His name was written there in Sharpie alongside a little drawing of a robot. “Jensen,” he answered. “Or Café Bene peon. Whichever really.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"Your choice of words suggest that you feel this work is beneath you- Which it likely is. What would you prefer to be doing?" Spencer asked curiously.

[tech_geek]

“Nah, dude, I don’t think any job is beneath me.” Beneath him would apply there’s a job to be ashamed of, and that was bullshit. There was no such thing as a job to be ashamed of. “It was a joke. Inferring that I’m on the bottom of the retail/service industry ladder. Another pawn. Another little blue plastic person in a box of little blue plastic people in the game of Life.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

Again, the reference sailed right over his head, but he tried not to let it show.

"Oh," he replied simply. "Still, there must be something else you'd prefer to be doing," he prompted.

[tech_geek]

“Selling coffee’s not so bad,” Jensen  replied with a shrug. “I guess in a theoretically, if I could do anything I wanted to do thing, I’d like to do something with video games. Or comics books. But, my drawing skills don’t extend very far past stick figures.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"You could always write them instead of illustrating," Spencer pointed out pleasantly, offering a smile.

[tech_geek]

Jensen nodded, “Touché.” A laugh. “And now I’m suddenly having nightmarish flashbacks of my high school fanfiction writing days.” He faked a shudder. “It might be better for the world if I take a pass on writing.”
 
“But, what about you, dude? What do you do?”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"Oh, um- Well I recently left my job as a profiler for the FBI. I'm currently teaching a course on criminal behaviour and psychology at Kings College," he explained with a smile.

[tech_geek]

“Really? Wow, dude.” Jensen could admit it was a cool job, impressive even, despite the fact that he trusted the government about as far as he could throw it. At least he hadn’t been with the CIA. “You miss it?”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"Sometimes," Spencer admitted. "I keep saying I'll go back soon, I know they'd gladly have me, but- I don't know if I'm ready. A lot happened before I left."

[tech_geek]

Jensen nodded. Could he ever fucking relate to that? “Well, no rush, right? If you like what you’re doing now that’s cool too.” He’d personally suck at the teaching thing, but he had huge fucking respect for the people who did it. It was a tough and important job.

[dr_spencer_reid]

"It's okay," Spencer replied, his words making it a bit obvious that teaching wasn't something he was enjoying. Not really. Or, perhaps, just not any more. "I just- I miss feeling as if I was doing more. Like I was really helping people."

[tech_geek]

“Teaching people is helping people.” Jensen lifted the now full tub of dirty dishes and carried it behind the counter, briefly disappearing in the back room to empty it into the sink. He came back out, wiping soap off his hands with a towel. “In fact, you’re helping the people who are going to go out there and help people.”

[dr_spencer_reid]

"I know, I do know that," Spencer assured him. "I guess more than anything, I just miss the people I worked with."

[tech_geek]

Jensen’s smile was thin, without any humor, and understanding. “They were good people, huh?” he asked, leaning against the counter.

[dr_spencer_reid]

"They were like family," Spencer admitted quietly.