[psl] 2004: the weight of the world resting on my back

[firewatcher]

At least Maria could be certain that Danielle would be up at this time of night. Small favors of having a vampire in the family—you could always be sure they'd be up in the middle of the night if you needed to talk about something. Normally she would have asked Sam, but—well.

That was the thing, wasn't it?

She picked up the phone, and dialed the familiar number, hoping that she could manage to at least sound less tired than she felt. "Hey, Danielle," she said. "It's me."

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[beyondthisillusion]

Danielle let out a sound, halfway between a laugh and a squawk. Not overprotective? Not overprotective? It was, at once, both Shawn's best and worst quality. It was also why he was so good with kids. He'd more or less raised Danielle, where Miles had failed.

From what she understood, he'd been the one to haul her six-month-old ass out of a burning building, back before their lives were turned upside down.

"Take that 'daddy with the rifle' stereotype and multiple it by every weapon in the trunk of Shawn's car," she said.

[firewatcher]

Maria paused, trying to picture it. It was both surprising and not at all surprising how easy it was. "He's so relaxed-seeming whenever I see him outside of business... Guess how you handle your own personal affairs is no indicator of how you handle your sister's, eh."

She laughed. "I think my brothers mostly just knew I was the scariest out of all three of us, when it came down to it."

[beyondthisillusion]

"Without a doubt," Danielle agreed.

But Maria was also her favorite. By leaps and bounds. And so was Amity, when looking at the next generation.

So there was that.

[firewatcher]

She looked at her watch. "Yikes, it's getting late. Where does the time go?" Into work, into shuttling the kids around, into hunting. Not a lot of time for anything else—though having made time to call Danielle, she did feel a little better. That was something, anyway. Enough to take the edge off going to bed alone, at least. "I'd probably better get to bed to prepare for yet another day of the entire universe trying to fight me."

[beyondthisillusion]

"Just half of it," Danielle said cheerfully.

Gallows humor was a stronger bond between the Palmers and Remingtons than even Danielle's own DNA.

She smiled into the phone. "All right, coz. Get some rest. Shawn and I will see you on Saturday."

[firewatcher]

"Yeah! I'll look forward to it. Come over about eight, and I'll rent a movie, or something like that. Hope you guys like kiddy movies, because that's all we watch here, these days."

She couldn't see Danielle smiling, but she could hear it in her voice, and smiled back. "Maybe you guys could come by more often. With... Andy being out so often, it gets quiet, you know."

[beyondthisillusion]

Danielle mentally made a note that she would start trying to visit the house at least once a week. It wasn't exactly out of her way. And if anyone saw her, she could legitimately claim she was just visiting a police informant to do her job.

"Trust me," she said, "a kiddy movie will be about perfect. Grown-up movies just have a tendency to confuse Shawn with their...plotlines."

Except for porn. He was very good at following that.

"Goodnight, Maria."

[firewatcher]

Heh. "Night, Danielle."

Maria ended the call, and stood there for a moment just breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. As long as you're breathing it's not the worst it could be. It was late enough that by the time she got to bed she'd probably drop off right to sleep, anyway. None of that lying awake for hours.

She placed the phone back in its cradle on the table, and stretched, again before crossing the library toward the main downstairs hallway, flicking off the light as she went. It must have been because of the darkness that she only barely she was about to walk into Andy as she turned into the hall.

"Andy—yeesh, sorry, I didn't hear you come in," she said, regaining her balance and flicking on the hallway light. "How'd the concert go?"

He shrugged. "It was all right," he said. "It was fine. Pretty average show, not a lot of people out on a weeknight."

"Yeah, guess so. You've got another one this weekend, right? Maybe that'll be better."

"Oh—yeah, I do," he said, seeming a little surprised she'd remembered. "On Saturday. I'll probably be out pretty late, you know how those shows run long."

She nodded. "Yeah, it happens." How long had he been standing out there? "You need any help putting your gear away? I was going to go to bed, but I've got a few minutes."

"No—no, I don't, it's fine," he said, quickly. "Already put the stuff away, don't worry about it. I'll probably stay up for a while, anyway."

"All right," Maria said, shrugging, and clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't forget and get some rest, too, dude."

Andy heaved a sigh. "Don't worry, Maria, I'll be fine."

"Suit yourself," she said, and headed up the stairs. She couldn't help but think, though—was he, really? That, however, was a question for another day.