(Untitled)

[dr_robchase]

Chase was developing a bad habit of walking by the door of the church and continuing on like he hadn't seen it. Sure, he told himself that he'd go back on Sunday and he'd observe mass (even if he never did get far enough to bless the bread and wine, never did get to the point where he could summon transubstantiation with his fingertips). He told

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[everyone_takes]

"So what's scary about this place?" Kate asked from behind the guy with the little boy, her hand on one hip as she stared at them. "'Cause so far I've been told about dinosaurs and, like, body snatching or whatever, so just give it to me straight. Is it a torture chamber disguised as a church? A place to leave babies when they're being bad? Just tell me."

God, her mom would love this place. So much weird shit. Too much, in fact. No one would even give Tara Gregson and the five hundred other people living in her head a second glance.

[dr_robchase]

Chase glanced over his shoulder to the person, not even recognizing her, but not finding that entirely too strange. People came and went. "It's just a church," he assured, exhaling a breath he hadn't even been aware he was holding in. "Although, for some people, might as well be a torture chamber." And yeah, so he was being melodramatic again. Sue him. "Are you religious?"

[everyone_takes]

"I am deeply, deeply not religious," Kate answered solemnly, then broke into a grin. "I'm pretty sure that it's like, a requirement for religious people to wear legal pants, as my mom would call them."

And if the box was going to supply Kate with tiny shorts, which it had happily done, then she was going to wear them. Especially when they were bright pink, like the ones she was currently wearing.

"So why do you hate the church?" she asked.

[dr_robchase]

"Because I'm religious," he replied with a small smirk, slightly amused at how that weird that sounded. He crouched down to let Nate out of his arms when he started to squirm a little too much. "I mean, I know I'm not going to get smote down, but I feel like I can't pay the entrance fee. Or something like that."

[tearsthrulife]

Even when there was no one else there, Rahne often stopped by the church, a custom she had never even thought to break herself of. On her way there now, though, she wasn't expecting to see Chase stopped by its doorway, and even considered turning around, though she ultimately decided against it. It wasn't as if approaching was necessarily intruding.

"Dr. Chase," she said with a nod of greeting as she grew nearer, using one hand to gesture towards the building that had become familiar to her over the past year. "Were ye going inside?"

[dr_robchase]

Chase let out a heavy breath and turned in order to smile ruefully at Rahne, not even sure what his answer to that question was going to be. "I know this is weird. Trust me, I know," he admitted. "I just can't really set foot inside a chapel without thinking I'm not allowed to."

[tearsthrulife]

"It's not so weird as all that," Rahne allowed, expression softening a little, her head tilting to the side. She had never stopped attending church with regularity, but it was more often than she cared to admit to most people that she felt out of place doing so, as if she had no right to be there. "For what it's worth, that might be all the more reason to."

[dr_robchase]

Chase gave a brisk laugh and shook his head, aware that he probably looked like a lunatic for grinning like a madman outside a church. "The Doctor says that my Catholic guilt is one of the most infuriating things about me. And honestly, I can't see how he's wrong, most times."

[lucked]

While Claire had never been the most religious of sorts, she had attended church regularly back in Odessa, more often than not at the request of her mother. There was so much in the world that was wondrous, too miraculous to be random, that Claire felt the existence of some type of higher power likely. The island had only increased that belief of hers, bringing Claire to the cover of the church every few days to sit and consider her life, to pray to a power that she wasn't quite sure was listening, but one she would try to speak to anyway. Always wishing that she knew why, why she'd been given her power and why she was on a magical island in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

But that day wouldn't drudge up any of the answers she wanted, Claire instead nearly barreling into a young boy and his presumed father on her way out. Just in time, she managed to catch herself, stumbling back into the church and falling softly on her rear.

"Oh my gosh," she exclaimed, eyes wide, "I'm sorry, I should have watched where I was going."

[dr_robchase]

Chase glanced over his shoulder, eyes widening with mild alarm when Nate started to get that look on his face like he was about to sympathy-cry. "Oh boy," he muttered under his breath, hurrying over to help the girl up before Nate started wailing. "Sorry, he's sorry," he insisted. "Here, before he thinks he's done a terrible thing."

[lucked]

Children were always a bit difficult to gauge, some impossibly shy while others grabbed onto the pant leg of anyone who came near, but Claire had done enough babysitting in her time that she was able to get along with most children without too much trouble. Liking them, she always felt, was half the battle, and after accepting the man's help up to her feet, she immediately crouched down again after an apologetic look at the boy's father, before she turned her full attention to the toddler.

"Aww, it's okay," she smiled, brows knit and caught by just how adorable the child was, holding out her hand, palm faced up. "Look, it's only a small boo-boo. So small that you can't even see it. But maybe you can kiss it and make it all better?"

[dr_robchase]

Chase rubbed at Nate's back, grinning up at the girl and offering his own smile of apology. Nate seemed to be taken with her, wrinkling up his nose before darting in and doing just as suggested. "He takes after his parents. He wants to heal the world person by person, I swear. Cries when someone's upset," Chase said, but he was proud in that. "I'm Rob, by the by. And this little one is Nate."

[coffee_sir]

"Is this an architecture lesson?" Ianto queried with a raised brow as he came upon the pair, standing there without moving outside of the building. Honestly, he wasn't sure why they were there; Ianto didn't think a church was much of a playground, or an appropriate one anyway. But Chase probably knew better than he. Banon darted around Chase's feet, but not in any offensive way that would cause him to trip, just excited over familiar scents.

[dr_robchase]

"Invisible barrier," Chase said, as if there was something daunting or funny about the idea, but there was nothing of the sort involved. He took a deep breath and crouched down to pat at Banon's head lightly, staring at the door in front of him. "No matter how much time passes, this is one wound that never really heals up so well."

[coffee_sir]

"Some things need more than time," Ianto pointed out, but mildly, not one to tell anyone their business. But it seemed obvious, from Chase's lack of forward movement, that however he had been dealing with this hadn't actually dealt with anything at all.

"Are you going to be alright or should we head out of here?" he asked, looking curiously at Chase.

[dr_robchase]

Chase shook his head, trying to put off the feeling that he was having a mild breakdown. "God, no, please don't leave me alone," he begged ruefully. "I don't know, some people have issues with ladders or snakes. I just sometimes have issues with churches. The crazy will pass soon. ...I hope."