Comes And Goes (In Waves)

[drownondryland]

It's not that things are looking up exactly. It's that they just aren't looking so persistently down, which, for Meredith, is very nearly the same thing.

Or maybe they are looking up, maybe she's just being cautious. After all, every time she's thought things were working out before, she's found a way to crash and burn and she can't this time. Not

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[missingthekeep]

"Ye mean this one?" Sean asks, a hint of amusement in his voice as he takes a few steps back so he can retrieve the wayward pen in question for Meredith. "Real nice language, by the by."

[drownondryland]

"Because you're so squeaky clean," Meredith says wryly, crawling out the other side to straighten up, careful not to hit her head. She's done it before, far too many times. "Thank you. What are you doing in here?" He has every right to be, of course, every reason, too, but that doesn't mean she can't ask.

[missingthekeep]

Sean tries his best to look scandalized, but he gives it up quickly enough in the face of her question. He's here because she took away his usual source of entertainment, not that he's still bitter about that.

"Figgered I'd try ta find somethin' decent ta read," he says with a shrug, pulling up a chair and spinning it around to sit next to her, leaning over the back of it. "Lord knows we've nothin' left at home I havenae gone through a dozen times o'er. Maybe noodle about on the piano some if'n the place was empty."

[drownondryland]

"It'll clear out later," Meredith says, sitting on the edge of the table instead of going back to her seat. "And I like hearing you play. You should. When it's quieter." More books sounds like a good idea, too. She's got a bunch in the house, but like he said, they're pretty worn down. The shelf isn't nearly as cooperative as she'd like, although it's not too bad at providing textbooks at least. Those are hardly worth the reading for him, though.

[missingthekeep]

"Maybe I will, then," says Sean, as if he could ever refuse her when it comes to something like that. While he may not be as keen on small audiences as he once was, he likes playing for her.

Reaching over, he slides one of the multitude of papers she was working on over the the edge of the table so he can take a peek at exactly what she was up to when she got interrupted. "That mean ye're goin' ta be in here f'r a while?"

[drownondryland]

"Could be," Meredith says. "I could do this at home, but sometimes it's nice to work outside of the house and I have a shift tonight anyway." Which means she could aways do this then, too, since there probably won't be much else. There've been a few incidents of late, noteworthy ones, but a few is nothing they can't handle easily. "You could stick around. Keep me company?"

[missingthekeep]

Sean nods as he slips the paper back where he found it, just as familiar with her schedule as she is. "Got nowhere else t'be," he says with a smile and a shrug. And even if he did have elsewhere to find himself, he probably wouldn't have a hard time making a case for skipping it. He may not be bending over backwards to be the perfect future husband, but he still feels like he's got something to prove to her in the aftermath of all that went down between them. "Lookin' forward to the new school year?"

[drownondryland]

"Well, it'll be something more to do," Meredith says with a sigh. "I'm looking forward to that. And some of the students have been pretty bright." Not all of them, she knows, but at least she feels she's made some kind of a difference, helped out somehow, and kept herself busy. Around here, that's about the best she can ask for most of the time. "It'll be good to get back to it."

[missingthekeep]

"Lord knows every wee bit counts here," Sean says, and it's not for the first time that he finds himself looking back on the decision to drop his own class. Whether it's with relief or regret is something that he's not altogether sure of, but it doesn't really make much of a difference. All he knows is that it had felt like the right thing to do. "I'll try nae t'get too bored in yer increased absences."

[drownondryland]

"You could always pick up a class of your own again," Meredith suggests, slipping off the table and back into her seat. "Or make a few friends maybe. Or take classes, even." Options aren't as many as some people make them out to be, but they exist, at least. Maybe they both just need to branch out some.

[missingthekeep]

"Please," Sean says with a scoffing chuckle, shaking his head, maybe a little too much on the dismissive side not to be telling. "I'm e'en less of a career student'n I am a teacher, what'd be the point?" He conveniently ignores the bit about making friends. When someone worthwhile comes along, it'll happen of its own accord, that's all there is to it.

[drownondryland]

"To learn something?" Meredith asks. "That is usually the point. Although it took me a while to figure that out." She's smart, but there was a long period in which she didn't work at it at all, figuring negative attention was better than no attention at all. Still, her tone now is light, playful. There's no good dwelling in all that right now.

[missingthekeep]

"See, I would, but I cannae seem t'be able to decide 'tween bakin', sewin', an' rocket science," Sean deadpans. It isn't his fault that the majority of the offered classes aren't exactly in his wheelhouse. And as for the ones that could be, he's always preferred to learn on his own than to have some stranger hold his hand through it. "I'd come to yers if'n I wasnae so sure I'd be a terrible distraction."

[drownondryland]

"You would try to be, wouldn't you?" Meredith asks, shaking her head. In practice, she doubts he'd actually do much of anything of the sort, but even so. "Are you even interested in First Aid?"

[missingthekeep]

"It's a handy skill t'have," Sean says with a shrug. He doubts he's about to get a disagreement from her. "I mean, I know most o' the basics an' all. My line o' work, ye had ta be prepared f'r jus' about anythin'."

[drownondryland]

"Then come along," Meredith says with a laugh. "Sign up, you'll be a model student. And get to play with the dummy." It doesn't nearly make up for not doing much surgery, but it's still fun, she's convinced, and great practice. It's so much easier to test the students on what they've learned when she can see them demonstrate.