(no subject)
Jamie’s been lying on the long lounge chair (a sofa, Adam calls it) for hours, passed out and pale.
Helen’s been avoiding him. Helen’s been avoiding everyone. She is in the map-room of Adam’s for a few hours, thinking, sleeves pulled tight around her hands. There’s a hushed busyness in the other rooms, but Helen is trying very hard not to care.
When things are quiet for a while-Vanessa and Joris out for groceries, Adam upstairs-Helen walks out of the lower room. She does not creep, because she is not scared. Helen isn’t ever scared.
She walks past Jamie, washed out and hair drenched from fever-sweat, and swallows hard. She goes to sit on the sofa across from him, arms crossed tight on her knees.
That’s where Vanessa finds her, and sits beside her, and talks in a calm and soothing voice.
Helen has not had a mother in nearly ten years, and Vanessa’s comforting hand on her back makes her-
Crying isn’t dignified. Helen, as a rule, doesn’t do it.
She’s sobbing, Vanessa fallen to the ground beside her and arms around her.
“It’s not a gift! It’s a d-d-deformity! It’s not even properly a body! Joris said it wasn’t.” And he would know.
“Yes,” Vanessa agrees, in her gentle kind voice, “but Joris was thinking of his own world. I’m sure you can’t judge one world by another.” That can’t be true, all worlds are related, but Helen wants to believe it for now. “Helen, you’d be much better off thinking of it as a gift you haven’t found the use of yet. Haven’t you ever been given a gift like that? You can’t think of what to do with this gadget you’ve been given, but you know it’ll come in handy for something.”
Helen chokes a laugh. “That’s clever,” because it is, “I’ll call my hand my gadget in the future. What made you think of it?”
Vanessa says she feels a bit like that herself, with the skills that she has that have nothing to do with being a doctor, and Helen says she hopes they will come in useful anyways.
There’s a long silence as Helen dries her tears, and Vanessa asks “Better now?”
“Yes,” says Helen, fiercely. “I shall use my gadget to exterminate Them because of what They did to Jamie!”
Helen’s been avoiding him. Helen’s been avoiding everyone. She is in the map-room of Adam’s for a few hours, thinking, sleeves pulled tight around her hands. There’s a hushed busyness in the other rooms, but Helen is trying very hard not to care.
When things are quiet for a while-Vanessa and Joris out for groceries, Adam upstairs-Helen walks out of the lower room. She does not creep, because she is not scared. Helen isn’t ever scared.
She walks past Jamie, washed out and hair drenched from fever-sweat, and swallows hard. She goes to sit on the sofa across from him, arms crossed tight on her knees.
That’s where Vanessa finds her, and sits beside her, and talks in a calm and soothing voice.
Helen has not had a mother in nearly ten years, and Vanessa’s comforting hand on her back makes her-
Crying isn’t dignified. Helen, as a rule, doesn’t do it.
She’s sobbing, Vanessa fallen to the ground beside her and arms around her.
“It’s not a gift! It’s a d-d-deformity! It’s not even properly a body! Joris said it wasn’t.” And he would know.
“Yes,” Vanessa agrees, in her gentle kind voice, “but Joris was thinking of his own world. I’m sure you can’t judge one world by another.” That can’t be true, all worlds are related, but Helen wants to believe it for now. “Helen, you’d be much better off thinking of it as a gift you haven’t found the use of yet. Haven’t you ever been given a gift like that? You can’t think of what to do with this gadget you’ve been given, but you know it’ll come in handy for something.”
Helen chokes a laugh. “That’s clever,” because it is, “I’ll call my hand my gadget in the future. What made you think of it?”
Vanessa says she feels a bit like that herself, with the skills that she has that have nothing to do with being a doctor, and Helen says she hopes they will come in useful anyways.
There’s a long silence as Helen dries her tears, and Vanessa asks “Better now?”
“Yes,” says Helen, fiercely. “I shall use my gadget to exterminate Them because of what They did to Jamie!”