Father (private entry)

[abetterlie]

So, this saying about being careful what you wish for? Turns out to be true. It's either one of the best things or one of the worst that happened to me, but: my father is back. I used to pray for that. Especially once I figured out that returning from the dead is something of a regular trick in this dimension. I thought that it was so unfair

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[livingtwin]

Justine has had about as much of the family reunion as she can stand. She's already packed her bag when her father knocks on the door. She kicks the bag under the bed, but she didn't need to bother, he knew she was leaving.

"I was thinking pizza for dinner." He says to her. Pizza was always his peace offering. His peace offerings were usually on behalf of her mother who never even realised that peace was being negotiated. Justine knew.

"Yeah, okay."

Then he hands her the cheque.

"It's from Julia's - " He shrugs. "Don't tell your mother."

She doesn't know how to respond to that.

"I'll tell Stephen we're eating out." She says. And then she hugs him and he sees a ghost in front of him, not Julia's ghost. Justine's.

"In the foyer in an hour."

And Justine goes and knocks on Stephen's door.

[abetterlie]

Connor hasn't got in the way of luggage, thought the police has returned what they thought was evidence, i.e. his belongings from the motel where he and Justine had been staying. What he has, he has packed, though. Right now, he's sitting on the bed, holding the one and only letter he has of Daniel Holtz in the hand. When Justine knocks, he makes his decision. He has to tell her.

"Come in, it's open,"

he says.

[livingtwin]

"Pizza for dinner." She says. And she's still holding her own news, her cheque.

"Dad hates pizza." And it's important for Stephen to know that even if he can't appreciate the significance.

[abetterlie]

In all other circumstances, he'd gotten it. The importance of her father offering a shared dinner, and a meal with something he doesn't like to boot. But now he's too shaken, too much between joy and fear, to concentrate. He also doesn't think Justine would care for being treated like a child and being asked to sit down first, so he rises, and just blurts it out.

"He's back, Justine. He's alive again, and he's there, and it really is him. He's back."

He doesn't specify the "he". There has always been only one "he" for the two of them, and it wasn't Angel, or Wesley.