Original: Unexpected News
Title: Unexpected News
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: Nora and Mike (mention of Nora's mother and everyone else)
Rating: PG
Summary: This isn't a conversation to be had over the phone.
Warning: same 'verse as The Waitress *Written for Present Tense at writerverse.
Disclaimer: Everything about this one is MINE, ALL MINE. Mwahaha!!
Nora is staring at him, knowing that what Mike just said is anything but a joke. But, it doesn't keep her from laughing at him, as if she just heard the most ridiculous thing on the planet. It's an automatic response, which Mike knows. Even he doesn't believe something this ridiculous would come out of his mouth.
Especially not to her.
It wasn't a phone conversation Mike had ever been prepared for, let alone expected. But, that doesn't change the fact that the call did come into his office. The woman on the other end of the line asked for his father, but the young man handling the switchboard transferred the call directly to Mike, finding it only slightly odd that the woman had used his full name, when everyone else simply called him Mike.
"Nor?" he asks, watching as a thousand thoughts pass behind her eyes. He can't begin to imagine what she's thinking, in this moment. Well, he can imagine, but Mike knows that anything he comes up with won't even be close. He's known Nora all his life; he's been through every single moment of her life, just as she's been for him. Birthdays, graduations, double-dates, weddings, kids, and funerals...
"Hmm?" she replies, glancing up at the sound of his voice. He can see she's 'left the building', and he reaches for her arm.
"Nora, you get to drive this bus, okay. You don't want her to know, she won't get it from me." He gives her a reassuring hug and nods. Resting his chin on top of her head, he makes a face and adds: "But, if she's looking..."
Nora sucks in a deep breath and closes her eyes, thankful for Mike's presence - she now understands why he wanted to bring the girls over for dinner, so he could tell her in person - and lets out a half-snort, half-laugh. "Not like I've ever been hard to find," she mumbles, then pulls back.
Disbelief is shifting to anger.
"You remember, when we were little," she starts, feeling tears starting to well as he breathing gets heavier. "All the stories I believed. All the places she had be... all the grand adventures she had to be having." Shaking her head, Nora steps around him and clenches her fists for a moment, trying to breathe through the growing rage.
God, she hasn't wished her grandfather was here this much in years...
She stopped wondering when her mother would come back the night they buried her grandfather. She turned off the light in the window - which he made sure was on every night of her life, so her mother would know she was welcome - and changed all the locks.
Okay, so she actually flung the lamp against the wall in a fit of grief... but details.
Mike pulls her into another hug and says nothing. He can tell she's going to start crying any second - this is an old wound, after all. "When does Chris get home?" he asks finally.
"Tomorrow," Nora replies, her eyes focusing on the calendar hanging on the wall, behind them. Her birthday is on Tuesday. Thursday is also an anniversary, but one none of them celebrate. After all, what fun is it, celebrating the day your mother walked out the front door and never came back? Nora turns her head away from the calendar, pressing her forehead into Mike's shoulder.
"Isn't forty supposed to get me ruby?" she mumbles, drawing a good laugh from Mike.
"We'll get you some slippers, Dorothy" he nods, tightening his hold on her as she has calmed down.
"If she shows up on my doorstep, it sure as shit won't be a bucket of water she gets in the face," Nora warns.
Mike can only laugh.
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: Nora and Mike (mention of Nora's mother and everyone else)
Rating: PG
Summary: This isn't a conversation to be had over the phone.
Warning: same 'verse as The Waitress *Written for Present Tense at writerverse.
Disclaimer: Everything about this one is MINE, ALL MINE. Mwahaha!!
Nora is staring at him, knowing that what Mike just said is anything but a joke. But, it doesn't keep her from laughing at him, as if she just heard the most ridiculous thing on the planet. It's an automatic response, which Mike knows. Even he doesn't believe something this ridiculous would come out of his mouth.
Especially not to her.
It wasn't a phone conversation Mike had ever been prepared for, let alone expected. But, that doesn't change the fact that the call did come into his office. The woman on the other end of the line asked for his father, but the young man handling the switchboard transferred the call directly to Mike, finding it only slightly odd that the woman had used his full name, when everyone else simply called him Mike.
"Nor?" he asks, watching as a thousand thoughts pass behind her eyes. He can't begin to imagine what she's thinking, in this moment. Well, he can imagine, but Mike knows that anything he comes up with won't even be close. He's known Nora all his life; he's been through every single moment of her life, just as she's been for him. Birthdays, graduations, double-dates, weddings, kids, and funerals...
"Hmm?" she replies, glancing up at the sound of his voice. He can see she's 'left the building', and he reaches for her arm.
"Nora, you get to drive this bus, okay. You don't want her to know, she won't get it from me." He gives her a reassuring hug and nods. Resting his chin on top of her head, he makes a face and adds: "But, if she's looking..."
Nora sucks in a deep breath and closes her eyes, thankful for Mike's presence - she now understands why he wanted to bring the girls over for dinner, so he could tell her in person - and lets out a half-snort, half-laugh. "Not like I've ever been hard to find," she mumbles, then pulls back.
Disbelief is shifting to anger.
"You remember, when we were little," she starts, feeling tears starting to well as he breathing gets heavier. "All the stories I believed. All the places she had be... all the grand adventures she had to be having." Shaking her head, Nora steps around him and clenches her fists for a moment, trying to breathe through the growing rage.
God, she hasn't wished her grandfather was here this much in years...
She stopped wondering when her mother would come back the night they buried her grandfather. She turned off the light in the window - which he made sure was on every night of her life, so her mother would know she was welcome - and changed all the locks.
Okay, so she actually flung the lamp against the wall in a fit of grief... but details.
Mike pulls her into another hug and says nothing. He can tell she's going to start crying any second - this is an old wound, after all. "When does Chris get home?" he asks finally.
"Tomorrow," Nora replies, her eyes focusing on the calendar hanging on the wall, behind them. Her birthday is on Tuesday. Thursday is also an anniversary, but one none of them celebrate. After all, what fun is it, celebrating the day your mother walked out the front door and never came back? Nora turns her head away from the calendar, pressing her forehead into Mike's shoulder.
"Isn't forty supposed to get me ruby?" she mumbles, drawing a good laugh from Mike.
"We'll get you some slippers, Dorothy" he nods, tightening his hold on her as she has calmed down.
"If she shows up on my doorstep, it sure as shit won't be a bucket of water she gets in the face," Nora warns.
Mike can only laugh.