Darker London

Perhaps a white suit adorned with retro-style flowers wasn't the most covert thing to wear while Deirdre was on a creeping mission, but the flaming colour of her hair tended to negate sneakiness anyway. Luckily, Deirdre was so used to the way that Spectre felt, having spent a great deal of time around him, that she could tell the angel inside Spectre's house was in fact really him before she finished darting across the road.

( Wow no )

"Thomas!" Stephie called from the kitchen, where she'd been making coffee and messaging Deirdre. At first it had been good - Deirdre was going to come over and Stephie was going to tell her all about Spectre and if Deirdre was on her side, Spectre didn't stand a chance, and also, Stephie wanted a Deirdre hug, irregardless of anything to do with Spectre. And then Jinx had called him a cunt and something about Jinx standing up for her made her ache with the very strong need to hug him, too.

And then Deirdre had suggested with wasn't Spectre and breathing became an issue. "Thomas, where are you!?"

It had been Deirdre's idea.

Stephie, Tasha, and Deirdre were going to head out to find Stephie a dress for the wedding. Before they could go, however, everyone needed to have lunch and sort out what Thomas, Svetlana and the kids were going to do. And while Tasha, Stephie and Svetlana discussed it, Deirdre had gone to decide what to wear on their outing. She had heard Thomas in the hall, and dragged him in.

How he had then ended up dressed in her yellow sundress, modelling maternity wear chic, she wasn't entirely certain. Things like that just tended to happen when Thomas and Deirdre were alone together.

And then James walked in and whooped. "Yeah, work it, Dad!" he said, clapping and Thomas posed. "Stephie! Svetlana! Everyone! Dad's saying yes to the dress!" he called out.

"I'm going to try him in my floral robe next!" Deirdre said, excitedly.

The second that Svetlana, Deirdre and Thomas had gone to put the kids down for the night, it was like Stephie and Tasha both knew what the other was thinking. Which was how they ended up at the table outside, already several shots of vodka in, laughing and talking.

"Pour me another!" Tasha yelled, her arms in the air. "Celebration for leaving the city for the first time in ages! And doing so with a hottie! Do you know what Deirdre can do with her body? Dear goddess."

There were enough children in the large taxi van, that Thomas being quieter than usual went unnoticed by everyone except probably Stephie. He had been fine on the flight; excited even, but as the van drew close to the vacation house, Thomas said less and less. Now that he had started talking about what Brian had done to him, the idea of seeing the man's face in photos, even to hide them, was not something Thomas was looking forward to. It was a staunch reminder that one of Thomas' safe spaces just happened to also be the childhood vacation home of a man who tortured and assaulted him.

( SPAIN )

Deirdre had intended on having dinner over at the Kemp's house, though pregnancy brain had confused her and she ended up on the doorstep a day early. Her knock was answered by Tasha, who looked politely confused. "Hey, D," she said with a small smile. "Everything alright?"

"Yep! Is Peter here?"

( A happy accident )

For the first time since she had gotten pregnant, Deirdre really wished she could drink. It hadn't even been this bad the first six times Spectre had come over to whine, but it was now the seventh time since the first of February, and Spectre was once again flopped on her bed, so drunk that he was slurring his words. This time he hadn't even given her a warning text like he usually did, to make sure she was available for his moaning. He had just shown up after dinner, already unsteady on his feet. He had leaned against the wall, sipping at his vodka bottle, while she put the twins in bed. And she was fairly sure he would expect to spend the night like he had on the previous occasions, curled up in her bed, snoring so loudly it was difficult for her to sleep.

Deirdre loved taking care of her friends, and honestly there wasn't much she wouldn't do for them, but her patience was wearing thin. Spectre missed his ex-husband Thomas, and was upset at seeing how happy Thomas was with Stephie. But Spectre had also been the one to fuck off and leave his family in a lurch, which had led to the divorce in the first place.

"I just miss him so much it hurts," he managed to mumble, flinging an arm dramatically over his face.

"I know you do," Deirdre repeated, since she had run out of platitudes. She wasn't going to excuse him either. Her mother had left her when she was young, so Deirdre knew how it felt. There was no excuse.

Stephie was in a terrific mood as she ran through all the pre-flight checks, on the physical helicopter, on the equipment, on the weather outside and their route. She'd done Grimsby half a dozen times already and liked the flight, liked the fact that she could fly over Cambridge and wave down at Jude. Liked the lack of stress involved on this particular flight, too. Clark was pretty cool, she didn't get any danger vibes off him, even though most of the rest of the residents in the hospital called him Grim, which was partially where he came from, partially the fact that his werewolf form was massive and dark and shaggy, but mostly was on Joel. He only came up to the hospital for his change because he lived out on a farm and didn't want to scare the horses.

And she was excited because she got to take Thomas up into the sky with her. She'd loved the look on Flynn's face when he'd gone flying with her and couldn't wait to see it on Thomas's. Ground Control to Major Tom. We're all set here she sent him a text from the helicopter pad on the roof of the hospital, doing one more final loop around the helicopter as she waited for him to make his way up to her.

One of these days, Stephie thought as she looked over at Marie’s homework, she was going to have to reteach herself some basic maths.

Marie was pretty happy concentrating (out loud) on her homework sheet, which she’d spread out on the little green table in her room. Stephie was sitting with her, cross legged on the floor because the table really was that little, being a soundboard for Marie as she worked things out. Tonight she’d been given a series of numbers and had to indicate which one was bigger, which was made a little more complicated because the numbers themselves were different sizes. “They are very sneaky teachers,” Marie said, circling a small eight and scribbling out a fat three. “Very very sneaky.”

( ... )

Dinner had been delicious and wonderful. Marie had been overexcited about the fact that Deirdre's twins were going to spend the night, and she had Katya had come up with a precise list of things they were going to do before lights out, including putting together a show for the adults, seventeen minutes of playing with the dogs, which Deirdre had pointed out was oddly specific. Katya had just given her a 'wouldn't you like to know why' look. They had also given the twins a list of books to choose from for their bedtime story, complete with little stars beside titles for Katya's favourite, and little volcanoes for Marie's favourite. James had admitted drawing them with a small smile.

After the kids were in bed, most likely not sleeping at all, Deirdre, Thomas and Stephie retired to the living room. Deirdre sipped on a glass of non-alcoholic wine and scrunched her nose up. "It's really not the same," she sighed.

"We have an ulterior motive for asking you over here," Thomas grinned.

"I was wondering when you guys were going to ask me for a threesome. Jesus, took you long enough," Deirdre said, completely straight-faced. Thomas' jaw dropped and Deirdre held his gaze for a second longer before laughing loudly. "Kidding! Steph told me it was to bitch about Ry! Talk about a completely fucking arsehole!"

"Right, ha ha," Thomas said, nodding like a pigeon doing a Peter Kemp impression.

Thomas could tell the second he walked in the door, that Peter was in a terrible mood. Not only did he look visibly thinner than he had a week ago, there were dark circles under his eyes; his face twisted with annoyance. "Er," Thomas paused around the door frame, his hand still in Stephie's. He had already been dreading this conversation, and now Peter looked like he wanted to throw every single person he'd ever met through a window.

"Hey," Tasha said, catching sight of Thomas, Stephie and Deirdre as they entered the room. She rose to greet them, looking apologetic. "Dad's been uhm- I think the best way to put it is 'verbally sparring'? - with the doctors and nurses for the past hour. They just left."

"They're being dicks," Peter insisted from his hospital bed.

"I rather think everyone in this room was being a dick," Tasha corrected him.

"Do- Should we come back a different day?" Thomas asked, worriedly. This was the most coherent Peter had been in a week, but what if bringing up the past now only made things worse.

"Please don't go," Peter spoke up. "I'll try really hard not to be a dick to you. You're not trying to medicate me against my will."

Their last morning in Spain was a rowdy one, and Stephie spent the morning running around the house after Marie shouting things like “Why did I never get you tagged!?” while Marie hid both herself and her bag in nooks and crannies of the house Stephie swore she must have been scoping out since their arrival. “Sneaky little ginger ninja,” she said, seeing the strap of Marie’s bag poking out from under the couch where Thomas had originally hid the pictures of Brian – Stephie congratulated herself on her own foresight about moving them. “Can’t hide it if I’m wearing it!” Stephie called, putting on the little backpack and grinning at Marie.

But Marie screamed “NO!” and stamped her foot down on the ground, then picked up Gabriel’s bag and bolted, thundering through the kitchen where Thomas and Deirdre were cleaning up after breakfast then legging it into the bedroom all the kids had been sharing.

“Marie’s taken Gabe’s bag hostage,” Stephie told the other adults, following quickly through the kitchen. “I’ll negotiate for its release.” Jokes aside, she was starting to get the feeling she’d badly misread the situation and Marie was not actually playing.

( ... )

Spain, Deirdre decided, was amazing. Sure she had been here before, but never with her kids and there was something about that; about being here with another family, that just made the place all the more magical. The kids were getting along really well, which Deirdre adored. She wanted Gabriel and Eiley to grow up surrounded by great people, and the Littleton/Marsh troop were the best of people.

They had eaten delicious take-away, and then played game after game with the kids, until all of them eventually fell fast asleep. And then the grown-ups were all alone, and sort of at a loss of what to do. "We could watch a movie?" Deirdre suggested, swinging her long legs over the side of a chair.

"That just seems like a waste of good quality Spain," Thomas chuckled. "I would suggest night beach, but...sleeping kids, so maybe not."

"Well I see a deck of cards over there," Deirdre pointed with her leg, "I could kick all your arses at rummy!"

The Littleton/Marsh troop made enough of a presence of themselves as it was, but adding the Gallagher troop to it, and they cut a swathe through the airport as they moved. Marie was the envy of all the kids as she rode her suitcase around, but then Thomas swooped Katya up onto his shoulders and she shouted down directions helpfully (even though Thomas could navigate perfectly well without them, he still made it seem like without her they would have been hopelessly lost).

Things didn't exactly get quieter on the plane. Deirdre had insisted on springing for first class, despite Thomas' reminding her that the flight was only two hours long at most. Stephie had been paying eagle-eyed attention to the pre-flight checks while James and Gabriel played some kind of game on James' iPad. Marie was loudly entertaining the people directly across the aisle from her, while Eiley fell asleep immediately. Deirdre glanced over the in-flight menu, trying to decide what she might order, and when Thomas once again reminded her the flight was only short, she had replied with 'I'm on vacation, hush up!' before mouthing a 'pussy ass bitch' to him with a grin, which made him snort so hard he very nearly spilled his complimentary champagne all over his damn self.

The entire flight was like that, the kind of slightly-controlled chaos that made him so ridiculously happy, he couldn't even describe it.

They could have made better time, but Zoe was trying not to think that. She was frustrated at the rain, frustrated at everyone else in their cars this morning, frustrated she lived so far away, but conscious of Liz, and everything Liz had said about taking it all on herself.

You can't control rain, and cars, and distance, Zoe reminded herself.

( ... )

Zena didn't much like going out into the world at large, since it meant having to be around actual people. It was, however, a reality of being alive. She needed to stock up on supplies and she didn't have anyone to really send out to get it for her.

She was winding around the aisles in Waitrose, trying to avoid the eyes of anyone else as she shoved things into her cart. She would have completed her shopping trip that way too, until she felt something tug at the edge of her senses. Some dark and familiar feeling she knew all too well.

Someone like her.

Abandoning her cart, Zena headed towards the demon, whether it towards a fight, or proof that she needed to flee. She stopped dead in her tracks, however, when she spotted the redhaired woman who was looking straight back at her. "You," Zena whispered, her eyebrows raising. "You- I've seen you-"

"The auction," the other woman whispered back, and Zena nodded quickly.

"I went to Amsterdam."

"Paris," the redhead answered back.

There was someone else who had escaped them, someone like her. Zena motioned her head outside and raised her eyebrows to see if the other demon wanted to follow.

Josie escaped the house and walked away, her head a storm of Stephie’s You are stronger than every bad things inside you countered with Josie’s I am every bad thing inside me countered with Ko’s I wish we found you first all repeating in a maddening round in her head.

She knew she’d fucked up. She could barely find the logic now that had led to her pinning Stephie down, or what had compelled her to try scare the living daylights out of her.

Because I’m shit – that was the obvious answer. Trash, just human trash or not even that, nothing better than a leech, an angry leech who ruined everything she gave a shit about. Of course she didn’t want Stephie to hate her, but she knew she deserved to have Stephie hate her.

( ... )

The past few weeks had been seriously stressful and on top of it all, she had had to hear her best friend describe some of his experiences while living on the streets of London.

Deirdre needed a palate cleanser.

She swept through the doors of RMMH, not even pausing to sign in at the front desk because 'reason for visiting: fucking something' seemed a little crass. Though the idea of the look on Peter's face when he read it was pretty amusing.

Deirdre wasn't even sure who she was looking for, though she had slept with Katia before and that was nice. She headed to the residental ward to see who was hanging around. A lot of her friends would be out looking for Amaris, but surely someone willing to throw down would be snooping around the common room.

When she entered, however, the room was empty. With a groan, she flung herself onto one of the sofas to wait.

Deirdre had said she didn’t want her kids in the city at the moment and as Stephie waited for her to arrive she was trying very hard not to dwell on that. She’d sent her kids away to keep them safe and Stephie wondered if she should too - but she couldn’t imagine where would be safer than here. They didn’t know where Brian was or what he looked like so nowhere was really safe, and if Marie and the angels were somewhere far away it would just mean Stephie wasn't there to put herself between them and danger.

Also she couldn’t imagine separating Thomas from his kids right now. The kids were like this carefully positioned broom pole keeping the blanket fort roof up.

( ... )

Deirdre was slightly annoyed.

Her twins were with their father and therefore Deirdre had free time she was usually pretty short of. Of course that meant that Spectre was busy with his kids, Thomas wasn't answering his texts, Quinn and Flynn were totally having sex, and so Deirdre had come to the hospital expecting to visit with Peter and Stephie only to find they weren't in.

They had gone on some fieldtrip together, according to Abby. And when Deirdre suggested they get a hot drink and chill, Abby had to run to her next appointment.

It was like everyone had set out to deny her a good time. Rude.

Not entirely discouraged, Deirdre headed towards the residential wing to see if anyone was there to chat with. She always loved hanging out with Charles, and even Bentley and Joel were good for a laugh or two, on occasion.