Nexus!continuity. For Eights

[hero_farmboy]

Sure enough, the door opens as if they're entering the front foyer of Clark's house. He glances around the entrance way and then stops to listen

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[downsidedarling]

After reading a book or two, Eights has the bright idea of climbing to the roof of the barn to get a good look at her very first sunrise in a living world since she died.

Getting up there isn't difficult, and the sunrise is every bit as entrancing as she thought it would be. But Anna's grace and Eight-Hour's cavalier fearlessness don't overturn the law of gravity, and descending from the roof of a barn without a ladder is... well.

How do living people do this?

[hero_farmboy]

Clark has had a great night's sleep. In fact, he's almost convinced when he wakes up that everything has just been a very long, very odd dream. He takes his time showering and changing and by the time he bounds down the stairs to put some coffee on, he is convinced a dream is all it was.

"Hey, Shelby," he greets the dog, scooping out some food for him, and then peers out the window to the yard, trying to decide what the weather's going to be like.

[downsidedarling]

At some point during the night Eights raided her shopping bags and got dressed. Plain blue jeans and a nondescript white T-shirt, and a bra, thank fuck.

So the clothes she had been wearing earlier have been deposited in the first laundry bin she could find, and there's an empty shopping bag from Fordman's on the arm of the couch.

Oh, and her band-aid is discarded by the kitchen sink, folded into a small square. She meant to throw it out, she really did. She just got... distracted.

Anna herself is nowhere to be seen. Being on the roof of the barn will do that. She hasn't quite got up the courage to shout for help; she's still arguing with herself over whether jumping down would really truly break the spirit of the vacation. (It would.)

[hero_farmboy]

The bandaid causes him to frown, but he brushes the feeling off and deposits it in the garbage before he can give it a second thought.

It isn't until he wanders into the sitting room that things really start to sink in. He hasn't been to Fordman's in ages. Neither has his mother.

"Crap."

Back at the window, he pays a little more attention to the barn. He doesn't quite think to look up. Yet.

[downsidedarling]

Anna, by this time, is pacing back and forth on the top of the barn. When she looks in the window and sees Clark, she sighs.

"All right, I give up. Doesn't look like he can see me..."

(Eights is used to talking to herself.)

"Let's see if we can fix that."

She crouches down as close as she can get to the house and peers in Clark's direction, not being quite up to letting go of her dignity and shouting as of yet.

[hero_farmboy]

The movement of Anna walking along the ridge of the barn roof catches his eye.

He sighs.

"What the hell is she doing?" Shelby has no answer for him, so Clark slips some shoes on, grabs a jacket and heads outside at a jog.

"Are you insane?" He yells up at her. "How did you even get up there?"

[downsidedarling]

"What d'you think?" she shouts back, grinning and exhilarated. "I climbed! But it's easier to get up than down. Could you come to your window and help me back into the loft?"

[hero_farmboy]

So much for the dream theory.

"And how are you going to get to the loft window? I can get you a ladder, how's that?"

Clark doesn't wait for an answer, he just stomps into the barn muttering something about crazy women and gets a stretch ladder out (it's a lot heavier than he remembers, but he manages with only a minimal amount of struggle). Once out back of the barn, he gets the ladder up and balanced against the wall.

"All right, now be careful."

[downsidedarling]

"Oh, for fuck's sake," she says, scrambling lightly down the roof and then the ladder. "How d'you think I got up? It's not that far from the loft window to the point of the roof. I could've made it."

She's grinning, however. A night of reading followed by the opportunity to watch a sunrise has got her paradoxically ebullient.

"Good morning!"

[hero_farmboy]

"I'm not exactly encouraging of reckless behaviour." Clark says sternly, holding the ladder steady at the bottom as Anna climbs down.

When she reaches the ground, he moves off to the side and returns the greeting. "Good morning. Coffee should be ready, if you want."

[downsidedarling]

"Aren't you worried I'll do something even more insane than climb your barn if you let me get anywhere near caffeine? Thanks, though, I'd love some coffee."

She hops the last four steps and lands perfectly, just to be obstinate.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark gives her a look that's bordering on parental and then nods her toward the house.

"I hate to think what you'd consider more insane than that. And if you've already thought of something, don't tell me. Just keep it to yourself and don't act on it. Your little secret, okay?"

[downsidedarling]

"You got it, Clark," she says agreeably, following his nod housewards. "I hadn't, for the record."

[hero_farmboy]

That doesn't work quite so well on him now, but he'll take it.

"Thank you." He jogs ahead to get the door for her.

[downsidedarling]

Eights is cursing herself inwardly for such an obvious callback to the time she's not supposed to be referencing.

"You're welcome," says Anna as she reaches the door, walking through it with a gracious nod. Hey, she can respect chivalry. Sometimes. Under protest.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark steps in behind her and tosses his jacket on the stairs. Then he heads straight for the coffee, because after that? He needs it.

Two cups are poured and he leaves the cream and sugar out for Eights to fix her own the way she wants.