paradisalogs | IT'S A BABY-BONANZA!

[York raises his eyebrows at her--what was that all about?--but goes back to helping Jack with his meal. Laura is all done with hers, of course. (But then, she is several years older than Jack.)]

I'm done, Mommy!

[She murmurs a reluctant] Later. [to him before turning her lackluster smile back to the kids. No, she has to be better. Smile wider, smile more genuinely.] We can explore the gardens when everyone's done.

[Meanwhile, Jack is making spaceship noises as he flies his chicken nuggets through the air toward his ketchup.]

[Yeah, he has a feeling she's probably going to conveniently forget about "later", but oh well. York helps Laura gather up the trash from their meals while Jack works on finishing his.]

That sounds like a good idea. You know, I saw a bunch of bunnies out there from the windows earlier.

[Yeah, she probably is going to forget about later, but for now, she's focusing on the kids. She looks over at Laura, watching for her reaction to bunnies.

Jack, all and all, is still pretty focused on his spaceship chicken nuggets.]

[Laura, naturally, gets all wide-eyed despite having just been at the petting zoo earlier.]

Real bunnies? Are they soft?

Softer than anything.

[Hmm, looks like Jack might be here for a while. York looks over at Carolina thoughtfully.] Do you want to grab something to eat? Or I can grab something for you, if you want to watch the kids for a second. [Which she'll probably throw against the wall and eat an MRE instead, but.]

[Carolina actually fully smiles at Laura's reaction and when she turns to answer York's question, she can't exactly shut those good vibes off. Looks like she'll just have to endure him doing something nice for her.]

I can watch the kids.

[Victoly. York quickly heads over to the counter to grab her some chicken strips and a salad. Not quite fried chicken, but close enough.]

[As he does, Carolina will aid Jack in directing those spaceships toward his mouth, but not too strongly to rush him through the rest of lunch. He still has a handful of nuggets, some carrots, and pieces of apple, so they're not going anywhere fast.

When he gets back, she'll just nod, not quite up for stomaching gratitude right now. Clearly, she's the one doing him a favor.

(You don't deserve him. The back of her mind fights back against that rationalization.)

And then she'll start actually eating the food he got for her.]

[Hey, a small victory is still a victory. He'll also slip some apple slices to Laura since she finished her meal already and he doesn't want her to get antsy.]

So, are you guys liking vacation so far?

[Laura's expression brightens up and she nods vigorously.] I am, Daddy!

[That distracts Jack from his Spaceship Nugget adventure and claps his hands, getting ketchup all over them.] Yes Daddy!

[The jury's still out for Carolina as she fills her mouth with salad as an obvious excuse to not reply.]

[They're definitely going to have to wash up after this, York sees.

As for Carolina, he gives her a very slight eyeroll; maybe the stick up her butt will loosen and maybe it won't.]

Good. But we still have a lot left to explore here, and lots more playing to do. I missed you guys.

[Which, yeah, he includes Carolina in that statement too. He did.]

[Carolina pauses her lunch and is in the process of trying to wipe down Jack's hands, which he frowns at because he can't have spaceship adventures without his hands. She figures he isn't talking about her, and keeps wiping at their son's hands, but she does consider that and remind herself to have the kids make something for him later.

A kind of physical proof that he'd always wanted that he could make it.] We'll have plenty of time to explore this week.

[As for York, he loves these babies too much for him to consider them anything but real - but he still doesn't really believe he'll make it. No one can change the future. Carolina's enough proof of that. But for now, the best he can do is to show the kids how very much he cares about him and pretend, even if it's only for a week, that he could really be happy.

Because damned if they don't make him truly happy while they're here.]

Mommy's right. Maybe we can visit the gardens today, then watch a movie together after dinner?

[She isn't exactly excited about doing something intimate like watching a movie (because to her that's pretty intimate right now), even if the kids are there. After all, she remembers too clearly several times when they'd been watching a movie, only to end up making out or having sex.

Those days were long gone, though, and she doesn't want to be reminded of them.

Once Jack's hands are clean, she gets back to her salad and he gets back to space adventures.] Can it be a spaceship movie?

[It'll be a family-friendly feature and he'll stay strictly on the other side of the couch. In fact, York has been thinking on and off all day about how to broach the subject of sleeping arrangements, since he can only imagine she'll want to be on the other side of the room from him, and he wants to be sure she gets the bed.]

We can look at what they have. If there's a spaceship movie, we can choose that.

[Laura frowns and opens her mouth to protest.]

--And then your sister gets to pick tomorrow. Okay?

[She purses her lips but then nods.]

[Ideas for sleeping arrangements, though, would assume that she'll sleep, which she's planning on not doing, considering how much she got this morning. She quickly finishes her food with her usual efficiency and tries to help Jack again in moving those nuggets closer to his mouth. He finally gives in and finishes up his last couple nuggets.

But there's still carrots to be little rockets.]

Yay spaceships!

[She's a lot more likely to get sleep on the bed than anywhere else, though, and York won't even consider the possibility that she won't. It's terrible for you not to get enough sleep, after all.

Laura's getting a little impatient at how long her brother's taking, though.]

Hurry up, Jack! We gotta go exploring!

[To her, it's either sleep and have nightmares and possibly wake up the kids, or stay up and try to control her anger the next day. She'd rather deal with the latter than add more guilt to the weight on her shoulders.

Jack makes a face at Laura as he eats one carrot very slowly.] But they're pockets! [He makes an exaggerated ZOOM! noise]

It's rockets.

[York bites back a grin at that bossy tone. Sure does sound familiar. Even so, he doesn't want her to bully her little brother.]

Let him take his time. Are you in school yet, honey?

Of course I am! [And she'll start babbling a bit about normal second grade things.]

[Carolina can't help the light tug of a smile as well at that tone. Definitely sounds like someone she knows and Laura's babbling is a good distraction from the thoughts of the movie later. Jack slowly makes his way through his carrot rockets and his apple slices. Once he's finished, Carolina gently wipes down his hands again before he pushes back from the table.]

'Splorin time! 'Splorin time!

[York will take the trash from the meal and deposit it neatly in a nearby bin and then walk over to join the others. Laura takes his hand to guide him.]

The garden is this way! I saw a sign.

All right, all right.

[Jack eagerly bounds along York's other side, definitely wanting to help with this leading (and not knowing where the garden is). It's easy enough, though, to follow Laura's directions. Carolina doesn't exactly trail behind but she's not joining the hand chain of love anytime soon, so she'll stand just a bit apart, enough to still be in their general area without needing to really be all that close to York.]

[Hey, if she wants to leave both of the kids to him, he'll let her. At least the kids genuinely like him--quite honestly something York's been needing badly ever since Carolina decided to toss a pair of dogtags off a cliff. A little reassurance that his life here had some meaning to someone.

The garden, of course, is set up like a giant outdoor playground with a little bit of landscaping, and sure enough there's Hyzenthlay and her bunnies around here somewhere. True to the nature of kids everywhere, Laura immediately dashes over to a short slide.]

Look at me, Mommy! Daddy!

[Carolina wouldn't deny that his life has certainly meant something. She had loved him back then, he had helped her back then, but now she didn't want any of that. Now, he's more of a threat than ally.

Still, she can pretend as well as anyone else, with the inspiration of the slowly-emerging awfulness of her father's parenting.

She watches at Laura climbs up to the top of the slide, with Jack of course hot on her heels. Carolina offers a little wave and watches intently.] We're watching.

[If she thinks he's a threat, she really does need to learn the difference between her enemies and her friends. A threat is not someone who laughs and waves at little kids going down a slide or playing on a rocking-horse or playing spaceship with their chicken nuggets.

Even so, he does his best to keep his gaze firmly on the kids, as much as he wants to glance over at Carolina and make sure she's all right.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject