[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]

"Still looking into a lot of that stuff," Danielle admitted with a bit of a sigh. "You know how it is. Getting the truth out of a vampire is like trying to squeeze a rock to get water."

She was fairly certain there were things that even Shawn hadn't told her. And she had to admit, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know what they were. She didn't have a problem with the Lance exactly, but there was no dying there was a darkness to them. And it scared her more than a little bit. Some nights, she still couldn't believe that Shawn walked among them.

Other nights, she didn't want to.

"I'll make friends with her," she sighed. "See what comes from it. Looks like minimal cost, anyway."

[firewatcher]

"Yeah." Maria exhaled, closed her eyes. "Just be careful. And don't get in so deep I can't get you out if I need to."

It had occurred to her more than once to clue Andy in on this whole thing they had going—he was supposed to be in charge, after all, and she technically reported to him—but she'd always stopped short. After all, if he didn't know about it, it wasn't his problem, which was probably the way he liked it.

She stretched her head back and forth, cracking her stiff neck joints. "And let me know if there's anything I can do to help. You've done a lot of heavy lifting on this."

[beyondthisillusion]

"Invent a way to make vampires more interesting conversationalists?" Danielle quipped easily.

It wasn't entirely fair, she supposed. There were some vampires--especially the not-entirely-dick variety--who were great conversationalists. The intellectual part of Danielle especially enjoyed talking to people who'd been around for important historical events. It was always interesting to hear a first-hand recollection. With or without editorial.

Only...

Well, the number of entirely-dick vampires was overwhelming. And getting bigger every day, it seemed. Partly because of her 'guilty until proven innocent' stance, and also, she feared, because Embraces were increasing. Recklessness was on the rise.

[firewatcher]

"God, if only," said Maria, rolling her eyes. "The only situations where I've known 'em to get real talkative and real interesting real fast are not really friendly ones, if you know what I mean." No, vomiting up everything you think a hunter might want to know would not save you. But she did appreciate it when that did happen, even if it was mostly what she already knew.

She tapped a finger against the shelf, thoughtfully. "If you can get me a name and description, I'll see if I can get any interesting tidbits from the police or something that might help you out." She sighed. "Man, we always end up talking about work on these calls."

[beyondthisillusion]

"We do," Danielle replied.

And she paused a minute. And then shrugged. And then remembered Maria couldn't see her. "It's better than talking about men?" she offered.

Actually, Danielle never talked about men any more. Or women. That particular aspect of her personal life had essentially become a nonsubject.

"Shit," she added, letting out a low whistle. "If Amity is this bad now, just wait until she starts dating. You're going to end up the scary parent with a shotgun."

[firewatcher]

Maria groaned. "I am going to do my very best to not be judgmental," she said. "I remember how hard it was to bring anyone over, friend or otherwise. At least with... with other hunters, you didn't have to explain the taxidermy and the weaponry. And hopefully this will just be a phase."

She herself didn't expect to be talking about any men or women anytime soon, either. Wasn't as if she was in her prime, anymore, and what was the point of bringing another person into their lives who they might lose? Maybe someday, but it was too soon to think about it.

She wasn't really sure it would ever not be too soon, but.

[beyondthisillusion]

"Trust me, there's no way you can possibly be worse than Shawn was."

Actually, Danielle had only ever brought back a date once or twice. And certainly never intentionally.

...especially not the second time.

[firewatcher]

"Really? Based on... literally every story you've told me about him, I never took him for the overprotective type." More like the opposite, actually. Though maybe that was just when it was about him, rather than his sister. "You can't just tell me that and not tell me the whole story. I know a story when I hear one."

[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.