75 Godiva, Wednesday

[vdistinctive]

The house was gutted down to studs, many of which had been rearranged to make the new configuration of rooms the team had agreed on. Eliot was working on framing the new upper story now, which meant a hard hat, tool belt, gloves, the works.

Seriously, he had this whole men-at-work carpenter look down up here. He hoped his partners appreciated it. Lord knew he did on the few occasions Hardison got down and dirty with a maker get up. He wondered how much Hardison would fuss about the sawdust if they tried to fool around in (a carefully cleared area of) the construction site. . . .

Work was happening, if a little slow. Since the carpenter kept distracting himself with idle fantasies.

[yeah I dunno. Open! Eliot should be visible from the street while he works. . . .]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded approvingly at the hardhat and took a long swig of the water. All innuendo aside, construction was hot, sweaty, thirsty work. "Nothin' wrong with the occasional lazy week," he noted. "You all can go get it whenever you like. Damage to the place was all support-based. I didn't even see much water damage up there other than some stains around the windows."

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"I'll miss it," Kathy said, more than a little wistful. "It was a good apartment. An insanely good apartment. Thanks for letting us turn it into a home."

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"Any time," Eliot assured her. "You know, we're makin' sure to build space into this place for you two, too. Not 'cause we expect you to need it or anything. We just like havin' you around."

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"I like being around," Kathy told him with a smile. "We'll have to do more family dinners. Maybe Raven and I could even host a few."

She liked family dinners. They both soothed and exacerbated the ache in her heart were her family was.

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"If you wanna and your boys won't mind, sure," Eliot said. He wondered if he should be getting all fatherly-worried over her moving in with Anders and Dante, but honestly, who and how she was sleeping with anyone was just about the last thing he ever thought to worry about.

You know, weird conversation about pregnancy aside.

"You all need anything in particular for that house, by the way? I'm reasonably handy."

Said the guy who was framing up an entire extra story on his own house.

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Which, honestly, had been more about her options than who she was sleeping with.

"I think they'd be cool with it," Kathy said, mulling it over as she grabbed the broom to start sweeping over where Eliot had finished working. "And...I'd like you to get to know them better. We're apparently making a thing of it. The three of us."

And it'd be nice to have a father-figure they didn't despise.

[vdistinctive]

"Well hey." Eliot flashed her a bright smile. "Good on ya!" Unsurprisingly, he was very pro three person things. "How's Raven feel about that? Bein' kind of your extra person?"

He'd spent at least a couple years being the extra person stuck on the side of two couples. It hadn't bothered him any -- okay, it'd bothered him a little but that was because he wanted to be part of one of the couples himself -- but that didn't mean that anyone else had to be into the idea.

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Kathy frowned. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "We're still talking about it. I think she feels a little awkward, but she's willing to try because she knows it's important to me. But I promised that if it's just not working, we can move back to just us."

She swept in silence for a few more seconds, mulling it over. "I'm a little worried," she said eventually. "I think living with more people--especially people who don't get it the way we do--is going to be tough. But I also think it might be necessary? She's still a little...feral."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. "I can see that. Parker needed help socializing with folks too. She's lucky to have you lookin' out for her."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shook her head. "If anything, I'm equally lucky. Not even just because she's the reason I'm here at all, but...she's been there. This whole time. Just there. No matter how much I yelled or screamed or cried or stared blankly at the TV. No matter how much I hated myself or everyone else or whatever, she's just...been there. I love the guys, I really do. But I told them from the get-go that if Raven didn't wanna come, I wouldn't either."

Anders and Dante might officially be her boyfriends now, but Raven was something that didn't have a name.

[vdistinctive]

"You're both lucky, then," Eliot said with a small shrug. "Havin' someone you're that tight with and only 19? Hell, I can't even picture what my life woulda been like, I had that."

They'd all been pretty sure they had it, after Basic. Like the bonds they'd formed there would never die. But they had. One after the other. Even the friends Eliot still had in the Service he hadn't met until later.

[spin_kick_snap]

Well, Kathy and Raven had literally stood together in the face of the end of the world. That had a damn good way of cementing that bond.

"I could picture what my life would be without Raven," Kathy said with a flash of morbid humor. "Rather monotonous."

Just a bunch of wandering around and teeth-chattering, really.

[vdistinctive]

Honestly, some of what Eliot and his fellow soldiers had faced had sure looked like the end of the world, too.

"Yeah, well, I knew I liked her for some reason."

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"She's scary, she's competent, and she loves the people you love best?" Kathy suggested with a small smile. "I can see a couple of similarities between the two of you."

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"Dunno. Don't think I could hike across North America durin' a zombie outbreak." He could, but probably only if he was alone. Otherwise he'd have to sacrifice himself for the person he was with.

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"I think you could do it," Kathy said, "but she can also turn herself into literally any other creature which does give her a distinct advantage."

Kathy couldn't. But then, Kathy hadn't been able to survive the city, so...

"Here's hoping the island never gets cute and decides that zombies would be a fun, like, Halloween gag or something."

[vdistinctive]

"Hell, I'd be surprised if the island hadn't already pulled that one a time or two," Eliot said. "Might be where the things at Caritas came from."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I still can't go into there," Kathy said. "I tried once, when I first got back. Ended up throwing up in alley a few times before going in."

[vdistinctive]

"Do you want to go in there?" Eliot asked. "'Cause there are ways to work on that if you do, but -- no offense to Kitty, but you ain't missin' a lot."

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"Nah," Kathy said, shaking her head. "I was never big on bars. I just kinda...resent that there are places I can't go, even if I'm the one keeping me from going there. But it bothers me that I have to avoid Android's Dungeon and Furnado a lot more than it bugs me I can't go to Caritas."

[vdistinctive]

"Ain't that familiar with the Android Dungeon, but I'm bettin' we could ease you into bein' able to check out the animal shelter when you like." He was pretty sure he knew why she was shy about that place, considering how she still reacted sometimes to Val. "I'd point out there's no shame in all this, but I gather you already know that."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Comic book shop," Kathy said. "Hardison hangs out there sometimes."

And it was full of The Shambling Dead paraphernalia, which had had Kathy noping right out of the store the one time she'd gone in, post-resurrection.

Modern pop culture was creepily obsessed with zombies, actually. Trust her, she knew.

"I--technically?" she said, tapping her temple once to show she knew that in her head, anyway.

[vdistinctive]

That just meant she had to wait a little longer. Zombies were in decline.

"Knowin' it don't help much, does it," Eliot mused. "You wanna maybe spend some more time with Val? Ease you back into spendin' non-dead time with animals?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I mean, it's tough saying no to more Val-time," Kathy said, with a faint smile. "The guys have cats. That worries me, a bit."

[vdistinctive]

"You given 'em a heads up?" Eliot asked. "Not that I think it's gonna be a problem in the end, but if you're gonna be living with people, lettin' 'em know about potential issues is kind of important."