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[lastof_five]

HELP NEEDED

Veterinary Offices have recently been built on the island and are in need of capable individuals with a love for animals and the willingness to learn. No experience is necessary, merely the desire to do well. Twelve and older, please. Contact Dr. Helen Magnus either via mail or at the (human) clinic on Mondays and Wednesdays.Helen

Comments

[justsookie]

Unsure why the confession was coming as such a surprise to her, exactly, Sookie merely blinked for a few seconds, a light dusting of pink rising to her cheeks, and a wetness in her eyes as she looked at Helen. Of course, she wasn't that naive. She couldn't expect that Helen would suddenly become a replacement mother figure to her, if indeed Sookie even needed that at all. The void left behind by her parents after they passed had slowly grown smaller over the years (or perhaps it wasn't that, so much as the fact that Sookie had undeniably grown), to the point where she didn't need to fill it so much as she needed to respect it and the memories of her parents. But still, to have any kind of role model in that sense at all, it was something that Sookie wanted. Direction. She'd never been without it for so long before in her life.

"I don't think it's really strange," Sookie decided at last with a shy smile. "And I definitely don't take offense. Actually, it's... I mean, 'honor' probably isn't the best word for it, but it kinda fits. I'd be proud to have you for a mom. Not that I didn't love my mom just the way she was, but sometimes I feel like it's been so long since I've had a mom that I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do." She shook her head, trying to keep from babbling incessantly.

"Which I guess is all just my way of sayin' that I'm glad. Glad to have that connection."

[lastof_five]

"Ashley and I were more friends than anything else," Helen admitted, glad to finally have gotten to the point where she could talk about her fondly and not have tears prick her eyes or grief twist her heart. Perhaps that meant she was moving on and if this place had given her that, she supposed it couldn't be all bad.

"I had a lot of trouble with her as a child, trying to relate, but when she grew older I understood her better. I've never been one for babying a person or treating them as less than a rational adult with fully-formed ideas, so Ashley and I had spots of trouble here and there."

[justsookie]

"Sounds like the way I was with my gran," Sookie confessed, brows raising as she thought fondly back to the way things were back in Bon Temps, before everything turned tumultuous. She tilted her head, trying to figure out how to describe it exactly, the way that gran made her stand up tall and look everyone else in the eyes, the way that gran left the house to her when she had to go out with friends, whereas Jason had never come even close to getting that responsibility even after he'd graduated and found a job. "Not that she didn't know when to baby me, I guess. She was actually real good at that. But even when I was tiny and barely able to reach up onto the kitchen counters, she let me do things. One of my first memories is of bakin' pies with her. She was always my best friend."

Her eyes felt slightly warm, itching at the corners. "Which meant more than anything to me."

[lastof_five]

Helen smiled a little wider, thinking about those memories of she and Ashley within the halls of the Sanctuary when she was younger. Did Ashley have those nostalgic thoughts from time to time when she was still alive? Helen hoped so.

"Let's...let's go bake, Sookie. I won't force you, clearly, but I thought, since we both liked to..."

[justsookie]

Even though her heart was still aching, Sookie couldn't help but think that it felt... good. Proper. The sad sort of ache that came from missing home and missing people, but that didn't gut her or leave her unable to go about her work. So she smiled and held out a hand toward Helen, for the older woman to take, figuring that if they both needed each other a little, in ways meant to close the gap left behind by family, maybe that wasn't a bad thing.

"Let's go bake," she agreed with a widening smile. "Can we bake pies? I just... I like bakin' pies. Or bread."

[lastof_five]

Helen took her hand and squeezed it, smiling wide enough to flash the dimple in her left cheek. It had been a long time since she'd baked anything, pies or otherwise, and it seemed like such a nice, normal thing to do. She and Ashley wouldn't have baked, they would have cleaned guns or done kickboxing, but maybe it was time to do something new. Something different.

"Pies would be wonderful. What do we even have around here to put in them, anyway? Mangoes, I presume?"

[justsookie]

Sookie squeezed back, light as the smile on her face, feeling a bit like the little girl she had once so enjoyed being, careless and running through the sprinklers with her big brother. Of course, she still knew her responsibilities, but to enjoy a bit of time with someone she admired so much, and was indeed starting to think of as family was something Sookie didn't think anyone would be able to hold against her. It had been a while since she'd baked, at that, and she was starting to miss the feel of flour on her hands.

"Mangoes, yes, and we've got orange zest, or coconut, or... I'm sure we could try practically any of the fruits we've got on the island," she considered. "Maybe banana."