Wren and Selina have claws (laminette) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-11-12 11:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | catwoman |
Who: Wren
What: Narrative: Money
Where: Safehouse, mostly
When: Recently
Warnings/Rating: Nope
Wren had intended to stay with Evie and Will long enough to have a doctor come see her, and she'd intended to stay long enough to figure out what she was going to do if Luke didn't come back right away. But one look at Gus, who regarded her with something like sad distrust when she showed up at Will's and Evie's, and Wren changed her mind about that. She stayed for breakfast, and she smiled through the meal of animal-shaped pancakes that Will made, and she promised to see a doctor for the unspecified injuries she was hiding beneath her shirt. In truth, every movement and every breath felt like a stab to the stomach, but she put a brave face on for Gus, and she ushered him and Finch into a waiting cab a few hours later.
The little boy was quiet, reserved in a way he hadn't been in awhile, and Wren was so tired and emotionally wrecked that she had trouble finding a way to make everything sound okay. In the end, it was Gus who turned to her, his grey eyes wide and wet, and asked if everyone was going away, and where would he go if they did? His little fingers were clutching Finch's ear tightly enough that the dog whined, and Wren just pulled the little boy against her side, stifling a whine of her own at how much the tiny body's impact hurt. "No, bebe. Luke is just gone for a little bit, and Jack will be back too," she promised, because she knew Gus had issues with being abandoned, and they were doing a really bad job of making that okay recently.
Gus gave her a look that said he wasn't sure he believed her, and she didn't blame him.
The rest of the cab ride was spent in silence, with Wren trying to decide where to go next. She didn't know if MK was staying with Luke, now that she wasn't staying at Adam's, but that wasn't the thing that solidified her decision not to stay at the apartment. No, she was worried that someone might notice Luke wasn't there, and that they might call CPS about Gus. She had no rights there, a fact which she was acutely aware of, and if someone came to ask questions, she wouldn't be able to keep Gus with her. And that fear led her to pack up a few of Gus' things, as the little boy sucked on two fingers and clung to Finch.
The safehouse wasn't the perfect place for a child, not empty like it was, but Wren had no disposable money. Selina's stash had all gone toward buying the safehouse, and she didn't have access to Luke's bank account. She'd always lived a day-to-day, cash-only existence, something learned from life on the streets. It was a habit she'd never broken, and Luke handled all the apartment expenses. It all meant that the empty safehouse would stay empty, unless she managed to find a way to earn some quick money. And, after getting Gus settled with some blankets stolen from home and Nick jr. on the iPad, she called his sitter, and she set out to find a job and meet with the realtor.
When the time came to for her to leave, Gus bit his lip bloody.
Gardens had been hiring once, back before she moved in with Luke, and she tried it again in desperation. She didn't really want to get back into the life, into that work, but the money was good and fast. She couldn't bring clients to the safehouse, not with Gus there, so her old customers weren't an option. It was better than hooking, which was the only other thing that would give her tips and money each day she worked, and the dominatrix house was currently hurting for girls, since the owner had been recently arrested. She took the job, and she agreed to start that very night, even though the prospect was a daunting one.
It wasn't just the fear of getting back into a corset, or the fear of wielding a whip again. No, the overwhelming melancholy and sadness she felt eclipsed all of that. She was heartsick-numb inside; it was outside that was the problem.
The injury Selina had sent her back to through the door with - diagonal and hip to upper ribs - was stitched, but the stitches were surface stitches, and the cut was (unbeknownst to Wren) deep enough to require internal stitching. Maybe Selina had intended to get better care for it, but Wren didn't realize she needed to, and she chalked the increasing pain up to the nature of the injury, and not to anything being wrong.
And so, job obtained, Wren made one last stop at the realtor about selling the safehouse, even at a loss, since the place had been paid for cash. It had been a silly dream.
But finding a buyer would take time, and Wren needed money to pay the sitter - money she didn't have. She came thisclose to just finding a john. Luke wasn't there; what did it matter? But she found herself in a check cashing store, and a payday advance - at nearly 100% interest later - and she had enough in her pocket to pay the sitter and do some groceries.
She went back to the safehouse and, tired and feverish, she curled up on one of the unmade beds with Gus, dozing to the sounds of Little Bear on the iPad. The sitter would be back in a few hours, and she'd have to go to work then. She dreaded the look she knew would be on Gus' face when she walked out the door, the one that fear and uncertainty in a tiny face that was way too young for those concerns. She tugged the little boy tighter, and she kissed his hair, and she whispered hushed, comforting words in French until he cried himself to sleep.