(Untitled)

[goingtodorking]

The little girl is absolutely covered in glitter. For a moment, Karen just stares, horrified. This wasn't supposed to happen. They were sitting making Christmas cards and Karen promised Lily that she'd take good care of Emmy. She'd made sure she didn't cut herself with scissors. She'd carefully drawn a Christmas tree for Emmy to colour in.

Comments

[pere_noel]

Now, Nick's knees aren't what they used to be, and his belly's a little more present than it once was, but he's still capable of lowering himself to the floor with surprising grace to sit with the two little girls.

"Now, what have we here?" he says, quite ignoring the squabbling. "What are we making today?"

[goingtodorking]

"A mess," says Karen, with all the honesty of small children. She reaches out and absently brushes at the glitter caught in Emmy's dark curly hair.

"I was supposed to be looking after her for her Mummy."

[pere_noel]

"Well, you both seem to be having a fine time," says Nick. "Do you mind if I join you? I do like a good Christmas card this time of year, particularly one that sparkles."

[emilyiris]

Emmy holds out both hands to him, fingers crusted in glitter. WIth her fingers spread, her palms look kind of like stars.

"Cards for Mum and Dad," she says.

[get_her]

"Hey, Karen!" Ray greeted cheerfully when he saw the familiar girl. His eyes widened at the sight of her and her younger friend, who Ray thought was Emmy, the daughter of that guy that worked on the kitchen crew. "What are you gals up to? Something with a lot of glitter, it looks like."

[goingtodorking]

"Hello," says Karen, still looking a little worried. There's a lot of glitter of Emmy. There's a lot of glitter on both of them.

"We were making cards," she says.

[get_her]

"Christmas cards? Sounds like fun!" Ray replied, sitting himself down between the two girls and not caring one bit whether he got any of the glitter on himself. "Mind if I join you?"

[emilyiris]

Of course, the minute Ray sits down, Emmy touches his sleeve with both hands, leaving two perfect green glitter handprints on him.

"Cards for Mum and Dad!" she crows. "From Emmy and Karen!"

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley blinked when she saw the glittery-vision and wasn't sure exactly what to do about it. She guessed that she would have to figure it out within the next few months, but it still evaded her. Apparently being pregnant didn't give her sudden motherly powers. "Oh my god," she managed to get out by the time her vocal cords caught up to her shock. "Karen, what happened?"

[goingtodorking]

"We were making cards," says Karen, her tone instantly protesting, prempting a telling-off like most small children do. "And I had some glitter for Emmy and then she sneezed and it went everywhere."

She holds out two glittery palms and shrugs.

[playingtheenemy]

Ainsley blinked once more and let out a quiet sigh as she started searching the room for tissues, looking at both the girls as if to figure out which one was more of a lost cause before she knelt down in front of Karen. "Hands out," she said simply. "Let's get you cleaned up so you can help me with Emmy, okay? And then maybe we'll use more controlled glitter and sneezing in future?"

[goingtodorking]

"I didn't mean to," says Karen, insistantly, "And neither did Emmy, Ainsley. It was an accident and we can help it if we're messy."

Despite the fact that she's essentially arguing with Ainsley's percieved displeasure, she does hold her hands out obediantly.

[whoneedsadream]

Anatoly paused for a moment, taking in the unexpected sight of two little girls, covered in glitter. He gave them both a friendly smile and ignoring the slight pang in his heart, knelt beside them. "That's an awful lot of glitter. What are you two making?"

[emilyiris]

"Cards!" says Emmy, holding out both hands to proudly display glittery palms. "For Mum and Dad and..." She looks at Karen a little doubtfully. "Them."

[whoneedsadream]

Anatoly dutifully admired the very sparkly hands. "Oh, I see now. For Christmas? That's very thoughtful of you both. I'm sure they'll love it."

[goingtodorking]

"She wasn't supposed to get that glittery," says Karen, leaning one chin into her hand and looking very long suffering indeed. It seems to have escaped her notice that she's incredibly glittery too. She rubs her nose. "I was supposed to be looking after her for her Mum."