Elizabeth waited. Claire is out -- in the nexus, she's fairly sure -- so she waited alone, sitting in the living room with a cup of coffee slowly going cold and Joni Mitchell playing quietly. The melancholic music isn't improving her mood--
There's a knock on the door and Elizabeth is there, opening it and she was so goddamn worried, it's a few moments before she can find it in herself to breathe again. She doesn't say anything, she just steps onto the porch and wraps her arms around Todd. If she were stronger yet, she'd almost be hurting him.
Elizabeth kisses his hair, like she does, and closes her eyes tightly, staying there like that. It'll be what feels like forever before she feels steady enough to let go of him. "I was worried," she says, softly -- there's no trace of accusation or anything reproving, she's just...tired. "Are you all right?"
"I told you not to." Todd does sound a little reproving there, and it's closer to the Todd he was before Antinora than anything else has been. "You should've gone to bed. I thought Claire'd be up- um. Anyway." He squeezes her back, but gently, conscious of her fragility. "I- I got Shmee a new place. That's what I was doing, and it came up last minute and I didn't know if I'd get a better chance, so I had to- and I did. He's, um..." He pulls back and holds up the fat, grinning, and almost perfectly smooth little homunculus that he made. Well, Shmee made, really. It almost looks like it could be concrete, but it isn't. "Here."
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There's a knock on the door and Elizabeth is there, opening it and she was so goddamn worried, it's a few moments before she can find it in herself to breathe again. She doesn't say anything, she just steps onto the porch and wraps her arms around Todd. If she were stronger yet, she'd almost be hurting him.
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"Hi, mom," he murmurs, pressing his face into her shoulders and not shaking at all and maybe that's what makes it so hard. "Sorry."
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