My evergreen, you are always gonna be...

[m_pinocchio]

He's spent the night alone. It's taken some coaxing, Tom hadn't been especially willing, but gentle insistence and he'd given way. Yes, I'm fine. I'm sure I'm fine. You don't need to take the girls, I'm really fine. A night alone in this house, with his daughters, with his ghosts. He doesn't even know how many of them there are now. One more added

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[gotacigarette]

Familiar little girls and a flowering tree. Eden's hair's pulled back from her face, sweaty from running. She passes her hand across her forehead and watches Mike dig in the soil. It's an odd picture, but it makes a sort of sense.

Mack looks up and Eden gives her a little wave, her smile uncharacteristically soft.

"I didn't know they were yours."

[gotacigarette]

"I doubt I will." Eden shifts Mack's weight on her hip. The little girl is fascinated by the sweaty spirals of Eden's hair.

"My body's hostile to human life."

[m_pinocchio]

He raises an eyebrow at that, unable to tell immediately if it's a figure of speech, hyperbole, or something more. "Like... literally?"

Because you never really could tell around here.

[gotacigarette]

"I wouldn't be surprised."

Slowly, Eden spins in a circle and makes the little girl in her arms squeal. That noise, it's a reminder that this, this place here, is not the war that any of them started. There's good things here. And that's okay. It's nothing to be angry about.