It's All Relative 34
It’s All Relative 34
Author: hawkbehere (hawkbehere2@yahoo.com)
Rated: PG, for language
Disclaimer: The majority of these characters are not mine. No copyright infringement intended.
A/N: All mistakes are mine. All my love and thanks to Rosemary for reading. Love to London Anne, my pal Jessica, xenavirgin, law_nerd and to Martha, my dear.
As a reminder? Avery Jenkins is the children’s principal and Sylvia is her assistant.
***
One hour later, Andy was equally parts pleased and truly exasperated with Miranda, which was par for the course of daily life. The additional morphine had greatly eased the woman’s pain but she was still fighting sleep so they were lazily talking about next to nothing layered with sharp, random spikes of meaning, as Andy had found sick, drugged people tended to inject into conversation.
***
Andy laughed, “Did you actually just call Nate a swarthy monkey?”
“I’ve seen the pictures.”
Andy smirked at her, “Okay, first of all? He doesn’t look like a monkey. He’s actually very handsome. But I’ll grant you his complexion is darker than yours and so are his eyes and hair.”
Miranda sniffed, “They could scarcely be lighter or he’d be an albino, wouldn’t he? And yes, I suppose if one likes simian features, he could be considered wildly attractive.”
“Why are we talking about Nate again?”
“I don’t like him and despise the way he left you. Although disappearing from your life without a word of explanation while you were in Paris?” There was a malicious glint in her eyes, “Indicates to me that you were meant for each other.”
Andy couldn’t help but choke back a laugh. “Touché. And are you serious? This topic,” she waved her hand at the room, “now?”
“When else?”
“We’ve discussed it. I didn’t like the way he left, either, but he did and that’s why I was free to be with you, sweetie.”
“Don’t be nonsensical, Andrea,” Miranda tilted her head, “He left you because of me, did he not?”
Oh, for God’s sake.
“Fine. Yes. Runway? You? Both about the same thing to him, okay?”
“We haven’t actually discussed this part of it. The way he left said so much about him to me. Left without a word and wouldn’t return your calls but so kindly left two months’ rent on the dresser. That had a dual purpose, by the way-to undercut your ability to think him a complete bastard and to suggest you were a whore, correct?”
Andy’s face hardened, “Thank you. I know the symbolism. I’m a woman.”
“And yet you defend him. Why is that?”
Andy was really too tired for this and so was Miranda but those glassy blue eyes demanded an answer so she gave her one. “Because he was the first person I ever really loved, the first person I ever lived with and he gave me a hell of a lot of happy memories that I will always cherish. I hurt him, okay? I changed the rules of the game. Not him. Yeah, he was a complete asshole about it but I know him and you don’t. I loved him and if you don’t like the fact that I still think of him kindly, you’ll just have to suck it up. He wasn’t perfect and neither was I. Because Miranda,” Andy said as she tapped the woman’s good arm, “I, for one, am a grownup. There doesn’t have to be a winner.”
Miranda stared at her for a long moment and then she smiled a real smile. “Well played, Andrea.”
“Thank you.”
Miranda relaxed into her pillows in a way that Andy hoped meant she was going to drift off. Her voice was quiet, “People do that all the time, you know.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
She sighed, “Nate felt used so he left a not-so-gentle suggestion he’d used you.”
She turned to Andy, “Has this emotional ignoramus who didn’t know him probably gotten that right?”
Andy nodded.
“I only meant to say it wasn’t kind and I’m angry he treated you that way. But life’s like that. You’re hurt so you hurt back and take your petty personal victories but, really, what do they mean in the end?”
Andy shrugged, “Not much, I suppose.”
“Less than nothing, I promise you. I didn’t do it, you know.”
“What?”
“I didn’t blackball Alicia.”
Andy snapped to attention, “You didn’t? But-“
“But I said I did? Suggested I had. Yes, yes. Why bother? I knew she’d sink to her own level.”
Miranda tried to adjust herself on her pillows and Andy jumped to reinforce them.
“Thank you.” From the dozy grin Miranda gave her, Andy saw she was really getting close to falling asleep, “I’m like a mob boss, Andy. Sometimes I have to send a message that truly hurts people and has collateral damage-like for Nigel in Paris. But daily? I just suggest it and it’s done. I told Alicia I’d hurt her and that was her perception. I don’t have to go out of my way to hurt anyone anymore. I’m not really interested in hurting people.”
“I know that, honey.”
“But I would. I’m just as mean and just as petty as Nate when I’m hurt and that’s what makes me angry with him. I don’t particularly like him because he reminds me I’d probably do worse were I in his place.” She picked at her blanket with her good hand, “It saddens me, knowing you haven’t had an upgrade.”
Andy thought about that as she ran a hand through Miranda’s hair, then took the woman’s good hand and kissed it, “Actually, you’re one hell of an upgrade, for better or worse, but luckily we’ll never find out the whole worse side because you’ll never be in his place. I mean, how would that even work, exactly? To scale? I’d have to meet someone ten million times bigger and more prepossessing than you are. Not even possible and no thank you. You’re more than enough.”
Miranda was quiet for longer than felt comfortable but neither spoke before Miranda finally said, “I’m tired, Andrea.”
End of discussion. Andy understood. “Yes, Miranda.”
“Stop that. And I’m proud of you.”
“For what?”
“Getting through five minutes without cursing at me.”
Andy looked at Miranda and actually blushed, “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll work on that,” she grinned, “with Caroline. I’m-“
“Exhausted and I’m difficult. You have to fight back somehow. In other breaking news…”
Andy’s grin widened, “No more talking. Get some rest. I’ll be here unless I’m using the phone and then I’ll be right back.” She ran her fingers through Miranda’s hair again. “Just so we’re clear? We’ve both had other loves in our lives, Miranda. But we’re the loves of each other’s lives. There’s a difference. Accept it, okay? I do.”
“Oh, alright,” Miranda murmured hazily, “If you’re going to be adult about things, I think I’ll…”
And she was out.
Finally.
Andy placed Miranda’s hand gently on the bed, then plopped into the recline-a-bit. What a day. Nothing was better than having your patient peacefully sleeping for a few hours. Nothing. Pressure off. She ran both hands through her hair, remembering vaguely something her mother had once told her. That, occasionally, as infant Andy had finally, finally fallen asleep, she’d just lie down and sleep on the floor of the nursery room.
Miranda.
Andy realized it was more than normal to feel insecure after having been shot and having been threatened by death but all of this? No true insecurity about the shooting, her life, her health, the children, the job, the…anything…nothing important. Just all of this insecurity aimed at her, at even Nate, for God’s sake, at their relationship and what did that mean?
She scrubbed her hands over her face and thought and knew. It meant everything.
She shook her head. Miranda’s only insecurity was her.
It was a sinking, awful feeling. Miranda’s sole insecurity, the most important thing in her life, was her. Only her.
Miranda had told her this but Andy hadn’t really chosen to absorb it because, A- words like that between lovers were often just words and B-those words were huge. She sat with the feeling of knowing the truth of them for a few minutes.
Although she didn’t like to think about it, Miranda was right. They loved each other and needed each other, of course, but Miranda needed her in a very different way. Andy would be completely miserable without Miranda but she’d live and move on. Miranda might live but would not.
Andy watched her resting so peacefully and faced both the woman and that fact. As she gazed at Miranda, it made her heart literally jump to know this one completely improbable person loved her so much.
She closed her eyes and made a vow to God and to herself, something she knew was far more solemn than any vow she’d say to Miranda on their wedding day. She would never leave. No matter what it may cost her because, if she were honest, she had no idea what it might. She gritted her teeth because she couldn’t stand the next thought but continued to pray that when it came time for one of them to die and she hoped it would be a long, long time away, that it would be Miranda first. Because that would be fair and that would be natural. She whispered, “Amen,” as she opened her eyes.
And she thought as she did so, I’m growing up.
***
After closing her eyes for 15 minutes but forcing herself not to sleep, she bolted up. Calls to make. She kissed Miranda’s forehead, left the room, and turned her phone on. And stared at it. Okay. Emily blowing up her phone and one message from Wanda. She bolted down the hall and outside the wing, then called Emily.
“Finally.”
“Sorry-you know how it is.”
“Regrettably. Give me your news and I’ll give you Pearl Harbor.”
“She can’t have visitors for five days-she’s really bad, Em.”
Andy could hear the anxiety in Emily’s voice ratchet up, “And what does that mean? She seemed perfectly-“
“She has 37 pins in her arm, Em. She could have died. She’s sick and needs to recuperate.”
Andy could hear Emily, could even visualize Emily’s face, as she took a deep breath.
“Yes. Right. So I deputize Nigel for five days, is that the idea?”
“Generally.”
“Done. Tell her it’s in the bag. Nothing to worry about. The reason I’ve called you so many times to no avail is to alert you of something you need to step in front of the children for."
Andy stood up much straighter, “What?”
“Jeremy Benjamin called me. Someone’s stolen the security tape of the shooting at the restaurant and put it on YouTube.”
“No way.”
“Way. And a few of the diners have added cell phone videos. The people at YouTube are taking them down as often as they can but they’re popping up again and again. I’ve managed to see them many times.”
“Fuck.”
“How succinct. I thought you might want to extend the cell, web and TV embargo I know you have on the children for at least another day until we can deal with it as a family.” Emily paused, “They will see it, Andy. Everyone will see it. We can’t stop that.”
Andy smiled at the word ‘we’ Emily clearly didn’t register she was using. “You’re right. I’ll call Wanda and Magdalena now. Thank you.”
“It’s my job.”
“Yes.”
“Andy?”
“Huh?”
“I will say this once and you will not rub it in my face, do you hear me?”
Andy scratched the wallpaper on the corridor wall with her nails as she replied, “Yes?”
“You were right and I was wrong. After seeing what happened? You were right to let Miranda handle the situation.”
Andy slumped, then rested her head on the wall, “I was?”
“Yes. You were. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Andy smiled at nothing, at the corridor, maybe. “Thank you, Emily.”
“You’re making me repeat myself. It’s my job.”
“Right.”
“Tell Miranda…tell her that I…well…that Serena and I actually, I didn’t mean just me, obviously…love her and to get well and we hope to see her soon.”
Andy forced herself not to laugh at the sheer anxiety in that voice saying those words, “Did you just say that, Em?”
“Again? Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Got it. Thanks. I’ll tell her. And Em?”
“What now?
“She loves you, too. I mean both of you. But you, especially, and I mean that.”
A long pause.
“Yes. Well. Right. Call me if there’s anything you need on my end.”
“Will do.”
***
Okay.
One good thing. The emergency plan was working. This was what she and Miranda had decided upon after the first shooting and had discussed with Emily. The children’s cell phones had been confiscated and cable access to TV was disconnected. Every computer in the house was locked with an administrative password. The children may scour the Internet afterward but their first access to information about an emergency concerning their family would be with adults present.
Andy called the house and Magdalena answered, saying without preface, “Ah ah ah-the real Emily says it and yes, the children are playing games.”
“Good. Just until I get home in the morning. I think we need to show it to them together. Whatever it is. I haven’t even seen it, have you?”
“Of course. I ran upstairs with my password.”
“How bad is it?”
“Pft! Like her in our kitchen, maybe? Loco. You can’t believe it. She stares at the crazy with the gun like she stares at Patricia when she barks.” Magdalena paused, “You tell her I am so proud and I will poison you.”
Andy blinked. “Okay. Could I speak to Wanda and has she seen it?”
“Of course. I showed her. She and Carlo. But I get your meaning. To speak to the nice Latina, not the mean one.”
“No. I mean about Juan Carlo and school, Magdalena.”
“Say what you will. I know what I know.”
“Magdalena.”
“I am making a little joke for you. I have humor.”
Andy smiled at the corridor again, “Of course you do.”
After a long conversation about showing the children the video so they would be properly prepared for school and keeping them out another day, they agreed she’d call John and Dalton.
John was easy. He agreed with everything they were doing.
The school? Dalton was easy.
***
Less easy for Dalton on the other end. Sylvia called Avery Jenkins at home, on a ringtone Avery always answered.
She listened and said, “I agree. The twins shouldn’t come to school tomorrow, but Sylvia? I understand you’re following the rules but hear me. Miranda, John, Andy and the Castillos have obviously decided, to some extent, to co-parent their children, so we will consider Juan Carlo their sibling in our school. He’s excused as well. Do you understand?”
She listened and said, “Yes. Thank you. Send me the link and I’ll watch. And Sylvia? I appreciate your work. You’re an amazing assistant.”
She crossed into the kitchen and butted her head against the shoulder of her husband Allen, who was patiently stirring a seafood gumbo for a rather late dinner. “Put that on low, Al. It’ll simmer. Watch three of my kid’s mom on YouTube.”
“Ah, geesh. Who?”
“Miranda Priestly.”
“No? Really? Ah, geesh.”
Avery smiled as he followed her out of the kitchen. He was a wildly educated man but swore like a sailor so he’d imposed on himself a new no-swearing regimen that was brutally limiting him.
“I do love a man with a vocabulary, Al.”
“That’s why you married me, smarta-smarty-pants.”
Avery grinned at him, then pulled up her email server. “Sylvia’s been poring over the Internet and downloaded the best video she could find. She said she was emailing it to me.”
She opened the email:
Ms. Jenkins.
Attached, you will find a video that captures what the Internet has to offer concerning the Priestly matter. The author of this video has done a remarkable job on the audio and it is possible to hear the entire encounter.
I will mark Caroline, Cassidy and Juan Carlo excused from attendance tomorrow, as per your direction.
Call me, of course, if you need anything more.
Sylvia
She gave him room to read over her shoulder and he said, “Sylvia has a crush on you, Avery.”
“Yes. I know that, bless her. I think it’s the whole headmistress thing.”
“That, plus you’re hot.”
“Thank you. That too. It’ll pass. Okay-let’s see.”
They watched the video with a degree of disbelief Avery thought would probably be anyone’s reaction to seeing it.
At the end of it, Al shook his head and said with fierce enthusiasm, “What in the hell-sorry-heck was that? Who am I kidding? Really? Sorry-I gotta say it like me. She faces down that lunatic, dares her to shoot her, gets her damned arm shot to hell, doesn’t even blink and the technical term for it is ouch? No. The technical term for that is badass. And for the record? Badass is not a curse word-it’s a statement of fact.”
Avery shook her head and smiled, “Al? Imagine a parent-principal conference with her.”
He gave it a moment’s thought, “Oh yeah. Well, wow. Geesh.”
She smiled at him. “As you know, my darling, I educate the children of a lot of famous people-musicians, actors, politicians, what have you. But when I meet them, to a person, they always seem smaller than they do in my mind or on television. The only exception to that is Miranda. She seems larger.”
“Really? Because she doesn’t look-“
“No no. I don’t mean physically. She’s not even as tall as I am and quite slender. She’s just larger…than life, actually. You hear that phrase tossed around but she’s the only person I’ve ever met that it fits. She walks into the room and it’s full.”
Al looked at her quizzically and she paused, wondering how to explain, “You know how when you’re in an elevator and you see on the little plaque that its capacity is maybe 15 people?”
He nodded.
“If I were in an elevator like that and Miranda walked into it? Pow! It would be full. In fact, I think I’d be a little claustrophobic about it. I’d think she would be too, actually.”
NEXT CHAPTER
Author: hawkbehere (hawkbehere2@yahoo.com)
Rated: PG, for language
Disclaimer: The majority of these characters are not mine. No copyright infringement intended.
A/N: All mistakes are mine. All my love and thanks to Rosemary for reading. Love to London Anne, my pal Jessica, xenavirgin, law_nerd and to Martha, my dear.
As a reminder? Avery Jenkins is the children’s principal and Sylvia is her assistant.
***
One hour later, Andy was equally parts pleased and truly exasperated with Miranda, which was par for the course of daily life. The additional morphine had greatly eased the woman’s pain but she was still fighting sleep so they were lazily talking about next to nothing layered with sharp, random spikes of meaning, as Andy had found sick, drugged people tended to inject into conversation.
***
Andy laughed, “Did you actually just call Nate a swarthy monkey?”
“I’ve seen the pictures.”
Andy smirked at her, “Okay, first of all? He doesn’t look like a monkey. He’s actually very handsome. But I’ll grant you his complexion is darker than yours and so are his eyes and hair.”
Miranda sniffed, “They could scarcely be lighter or he’d be an albino, wouldn’t he? And yes, I suppose if one likes simian features, he could be considered wildly attractive.”
“Why are we talking about Nate again?”
“I don’t like him and despise the way he left you. Although disappearing from your life without a word of explanation while you were in Paris?” There was a malicious glint in her eyes, “Indicates to me that you were meant for each other.”
Andy couldn’t help but choke back a laugh. “Touché. And are you serious? This topic,” she waved her hand at the room, “now?”
“When else?”
“We’ve discussed it. I didn’t like the way he left, either, but he did and that’s why I was free to be with you, sweetie.”
“Don’t be nonsensical, Andrea,” Miranda tilted her head, “He left you because of me, did he not?”
Oh, for God’s sake.
“Fine. Yes. Runway? You? Both about the same thing to him, okay?”
“We haven’t actually discussed this part of it. The way he left said so much about him to me. Left without a word and wouldn’t return your calls but so kindly left two months’ rent on the dresser. That had a dual purpose, by the way-to undercut your ability to think him a complete bastard and to suggest you were a whore, correct?”
Andy’s face hardened, “Thank you. I know the symbolism. I’m a woman.”
“And yet you defend him. Why is that?”
Andy was really too tired for this and so was Miranda but those glassy blue eyes demanded an answer so she gave her one. “Because he was the first person I ever really loved, the first person I ever lived with and he gave me a hell of a lot of happy memories that I will always cherish. I hurt him, okay? I changed the rules of the game. Not him. Yeah, he was a complete asshole about it but I know him and you don’t. I loved him and if you don’t like the fact that I still think of him kindly, you’ll just have to suck it up. He wasn’t perfect and neither was I. Because Miranda,” Andy said as she tapped the woman’s good arm, “I, for one, am a grownup. There doesn’t have to be a winner.”
Miranda stared at her for a long moment and then she smiled a real smile. “Well played, Andrea.”
“Thank you.”
Miranda relaxed into her pillows in a way that Andy hoped meant she was going to drift off. Her voice was quiet, “People do that all the time, you know.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
She sighed, “Nate felt used so he left a not-so-gentle suggestion he’d used you.”
She turned to Andy, “Has this emotional ignoramus who didn’t know him probably gotten that right?”
Andy nodded.
“I only meant to say it wasn’t kind and I’m angry he treated you that way. But life’s like that. You’re hurt so you hurt back and take your petty personal victories but, really, what do they mean in the end?”
Andy shrugged, “Not much, I suppose.”
“Less than nothing, I promise you. I didn’t do it, you know.”
“What?”
“I didn’t blackball Alicia.”
Andy snapped to attention, “You didn’t? But-“
“But I said I did? Suggested I had. Yes, yes. Why bother? I knew she’d sink to her own level.”
Miranda tried to adjust herself on her pillows and Andy jumped to reinforce them.
“Thank you.” From the dozy grin Miranda gave her, Andy saw she was really getting close to falling asleep, “I’m like a mob boss, Andy. Sometimes I have to send a message that truly hurts people and has collateral damage-like for Nigel in Paris. But daily? I just suggest it and it’s done. I told Alicia I’d hurt her and that was her perception. I don’t have to go out of my way to hurt anyone anymore. I’m not really interested in hurting people.”
“I know that, honey.”
“But I would. I’m just as mean and just as petty as Nate when I’m hurt and that’s what makes me angry with him. I don’t particularly like him because he reminds me I’d probably do worse were I in his place.” She picked at her blanket with her good hand, “It saddens me, knowing you haven’t had an upgrade.”
Andy thought about that as she ran a hand through Miranda’s hair, then took the woman’s good hand and kissed it, “Actually, you’re one hell of an upgrade, for better or worse, but luckily we’ll never find out the whole worse side because you’ll never be in his place. I mean, how would that even work, exactly? To scale? I’d have to meet someone ten million times bigger and more prepossessing than you are. Not even possible and no thank you. You’re more than enough.”
Miranda was quiet for longer than felt comfortable but neither spoke before Miranda finally said, “I’m tired, Andrea.”
End of discussion. Andy understood. “Yes, Miranda.”
“Stop that. And I’m proud of you.”
“For what?”
“Getting through five minutes without cursing at me.”
Andy looked at Miranda and actually blushed, “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll work on that,” she grinned, “with Caroline. I’m-“
“Exhausted and I’m difficult. You have to fight back somehow. In other breaking news…”
Andy’s grin widened, “No more talking. Get some rest. I’ll be here unless I’m using the phone and then I’ll be right back.” She ran her fingers through Miranda’s hair again. “Just so we’re clear? We’ve both had other loves in our lives, Miranda. But we’re the loves of each other’s lives. There’s a difference. Accept it, okay? I do.”
“Oh, alright,” Miranda murmured hazily, “If you’re going to be adult about things, I think I’ll…”
And she was out.
Finally.
Andy placed Miranda’s hand gently on the bed, then plopped into the recline-a-bit. What a day. Nothing was better than having your patient peacefully sleeping for a few hours. Nothing. Pressure off. She ran both hands through her hair, remembering vaguely something her mother had once told her. That, occasionally, as infant Andy had finally, finally fallen asleep, she’d just lie down and sleep on the floor of the nursery room.
Miranda.
Andy realized it was more than normal to feel insecure after having been shot and having been threatened by death but all of this? No true insecurity about the shooting, her life, her health, the children, the job, the…anything…nothing important. Just all of this insecurity aimed at her, at even Nate, for God’s sake, at their relationship and what did that mean?
She scrubbed her hands over her face and thought and knew. It meant everything.
She shook her head. Miranda’s only insecurity was her.
It was a sinking, awful feeling. Miranda’s sole insecurity, the most important thing in her life, was her. Only her.
Miranda had told her this but Andy hadn’t really chosen to absorb it because, A- words like that between lovers were often just words and B-those words were huge. She sat with the feeling of knowing the truth of them for a few minutes.
Although she didn’t like to think about it, Miranda was right. They loved each other and needed each other, of course, but Miranda needed her in a very different way. Andy would be completely miserable without Miranda but she’d live and move on. Miranda might live but would not.
Andy watched her resting so peacefully and faced both the woman and that fact. As she gazed at Miranda, it made her heart literally jump to know this one completely improbable person loved her so much.
She closed her eyes and made a vow to God and to herself, something she knew was far more solemn than any vow she’d say to Miranda on their wedding day. She would never leave. No matter what it may cost her because, if she were honest, she had no idea what it might. She gritted her teeth because she couldn’t stand the next thought but continued to pray that when it came time for one of them to die and she hoped it would be a long, long time away, that it would be Miranda first. Because that would be fair and that would be natural. She whispered, “Amen,” as she opened her eyes.
And she thought as she did so, I’m growing up.
***
After closing her eyes for 15 minutes but forcing herself not to sleep, she bolted up. Calls to make. She kissed Miranda’s forehead, left the room, and turned her phone on. And stared at it. Okay. Emily blowing up her phone and one message from Wanda. She bolted down the hall and outside the wing, then called Emily.
“Finally.”
“Sorry-you know how it is.”
“Regrettably. Give me your news and I’ll give you Pearl Harbor.”
“She can’t have visitors for five days-she’s really bad, Em.”
Andy could hear the anxiety in Emily’s voice ratchet up, “And what does that mean? She seemed perfectly-“
“She has 37 pins in her arm, Em. She could have died. She’s sick and needs to recuperate.”
Andy could hear Emily, could even visualize Emily’s face, as she took a deep breath.
“Yes. Right. So I deputize Nigel for five days, is that the idea?”
“Generally.”
“Done. Tell her it’s in the bag. Nothing to worry about. The reason I’ve called you so many times to no avail is to alert you of something you need to step in front of the children for."
Andy stood up much straighter, “What?”
“Jeremy Benjamin called me. Someone’s stolen the security tape of the shooting at the restaurant and put it on YouTube.”
“No way.”
“Way. And a few of the diners have added cell phone videos. The people at YouTube are taking them down as often as they can but they’re popping up again and again. I’ve managed to see them many times.”
“Fuck.”
“How succinct. I thought you might want to extend the cell, web and TV embargo I know you have on the children for at least another day until we can deal with it as a family.” Emily paused, “They will see it, Andy. Everyone will see it. We can’t stop that.”
Andy smiled at the word ‘we’ Emily clearly didn’t register she was using. “You’re right. I’ll call Wanda and Magdalena now. Thank you.”
“It’s my job.”
“Yes.”
“Andy?”
“Huh?”
“I will say this once and you will not rub it in my face, do you hear me?”
Andy scratched the wallpaper on the corridor wall with her nails as she replied, “Yes?”
“You were right and I was wrong. After seeing what happened? You were right to let Miranda handle the situation.”
Andy slumped, then rested her head on the wall, “I was?”
“Yes. You were. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Andy smiled at nothing, at the corridor, maybe. “Thank you, Emily.”
“You’re making me repeat myself. It’s my job.”
“Right.”
“Tell Miranda…tell her that I…well…that Serena and I actually, I didn’t mean just me, obviously…love her and to get well and we hope to see her soon.”
Andy forced herself not to laugh at the sheer anxiety in that voice saying those words, “Did you just say that, Em?”
“Again? Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Got it. Thanks. I’ll tell her. And Em?”
“What now?
“She loves you, too. I mean both of you. But you, especially, and I mean that.”
A long pause.
“Yes. Well. Right. Call me if there’s anything you need on my end.”
“Will do.”
***
Okay.
One good thing. The emergency plan was working. This was what she and Miranda had decided upon after the first shooting and had discussed with Emily. The children’s cell phones had been confiscated and cable access to TV was disconnected. Every computer in the house was locked with an administrative password. The children may scour the Internet afterward but their first access to information about an emergency concerning their family would be with adults present.
Andy called the house and Magdalena answered, saying without preface, “Ah ah ah-the real Emily says it and yes, the children are playing games.”
“Good. Just until I get home in the morning. I think we need to show it to them together. Whatever it is. I haven’t even seen it, have you?”
“Of course. I ran upstairs with my password.”
“How bad is it?”
“Pft! Like her in our kitchen, maybe? Loco. You can’t believe it. She stares at the crazy with the gun like she stares at Patricia when she barks.” Magdalena paused, “You tell her I am so proud and I will poison you.”
Andy blinked. “Okay. Could I speak to Wanda and has she seen it?”
“Of course. I showed her. She and Carlo. But I get your meaning. To speak to the nice Latina, not the mean one.”
“No. I mean about Juan Carlo and school, Magdalena.”
“Say what you will. I know what I know.”
“Magdalena.”
“I am making a little joke for you. I have humor.”
Andy smiled at the corridor again, “Of course you do.”
After a long conversation about showing the children the video so they would be properly prepared for school and keeping them out another day, they agreed she’d call John and Dalton.
John was easy. He agreed with everything they were doing.
The school? Dalton was easy.
***
Less easy for Dalton on the other end. Sylvia called Avery Jenkins at home, on a ringtone Avery always answered.
She listened and said, “I agree. The twins shouldn’t come to school tomorrow, but Sylvia? I understand you’re following the rules but hear me. Miranda, John, Andy and the Castillos have obviously decided, to some extent, to co-parent their children, so we will consider Juan Carlo their sibling in our school. He’s excused as well. Do you understand?”
She listened and said, “Yes. Thank you. Send me the link and I’ll watch. And Sylvia? I appreciate your work. You’re an amazing assistant.”
She crossed into the kitchen and butted her head against the shoulder of her husband Allen, who was patiently stirring a seafood gumbo for a rather late dinner. “Put that on low, Al. It’ll simmer. Watch three of my kid’s mom on YouTube.”
“Ah, geesh. Who?”
“Miranda Priestly.”
“No? Really? Ah, geesh.”
Avery smiled as he followed her out of the kitchen. He was a wildly educated man but swore like a sailor so he’d imposed on himself a new no-swearing regimen that was brutally limiting him.
“I do love a man with a vocabulary, Al.”
“That’s why you married me, smarta-smarty-pants.”
Avery grinned at him, then pulled up her email server. “Sylvia’s been poring over the Internet and downloaded the best video she could find. She said she was emailing it to me.”
She opened the email:
Ms. Jenkins.
Attached, you will find a video that captures what the Internet has to offer concerning the Priestly matter. The author of this video has done a remarkable job on the audio and it is possible to hear the entire encounter.
I will mark Caroline, Cassidy and Juan Carlo excused from attendance tomorrow, as per your direction.
Call me, of course, if you need anything more.
Sylvia
She gave him room to read over her shoulder and he said, “Sylvia has a crush on you, Avery.”
“Yes. I know that, bless her. I think it’s the whole headmistress thing.”
“That, plus you’re hot.”
“Thank you. That too. It’ll pass. Okay-let’s see.”
They watched the video with a degree of disbelief Avery thought would probably be anyone’s reaction to seeing it.
At the end of it, Al shook his head and said with fierce enthusiasm, “What in the hell-sorry-heck was that? Who am I kidding? Really? Sorry-I gotta say it like me. She faces down that lunatic, dares her to shoot her, gets her damned arm shot to hell, doesn’t even blink and the technical term for it is ouch? No. The technical term for that is badass. And for the record? Badass is not a curse word-it’s a statement of fact.”
Avery shook her head and smiled, “Al? Imagine a parent-principal conference with her.”
He gave it a moment’s thought, “Oh yeah. Well, wow. Geesh.”
She smiled at him. “As you know, my darling, I educate the children of a lot of famous people-musicians, actors, politicians, what have you. But when I meet them, to a person, they always seem smaller than they do in my mind or on television. The only exception to that is Miranda. She seems larger.”
“Really? Because she doesn’t look-“
“No no. I don’t mean physically. She’s not even as tall as I am and quite slender. She’s just larger…than life, actually. You hear that phrase tossed around but she’s the only person I’ve ever met that it fits. She walks into the room and it’s full.”
Al looked at her quizzically and she paused, wondering how to explain, “You know how when you’re in an elevator and you see on the little plaque that its capacity is maybe 15 people?”
He nodded.
“If I were in an elevator like that and Miranda walked into it? Pow! It would be full. In fact, I think I’d be a little claustrophobic about it. I’d think she would be too, actually.”
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