Who:Lidia and Gus. When: Very late evening, Oct 20 Where: 103 Orchid Road. Rating: PG. Summary: Lidia walks in on a phone call between Gus and his mother. Warnings: Nothing objectionable.
Lidia's late hours meant she got in late, but that particular night, the lights inside were on and Gus was in the main room, having an animated video conversation with someone. She managed to come home right in the middle of what sounded like a scolding. The way the view screen was positioned, Lidia could get an eyeful of the screen (and the back of Gus’s head) without casting a reflection herself.
"-to meet her!"
The woman Gus was talking to sounded a bit irritated, and he responded with the weary obligation that tended to spring from parent-child interaction.
"I know you do, mom, but this is kind of a weird situation," he said, "I don't think she needs the extra pressure."
"Oh, am I extra pressure?"
"Mom-"
"I want to meet my daughter in law! The mother of my grandchildren-"
"Come on, mom, she's not even pregnant yet," Gus sounded exasperated, adding in a half-hearted, "We're only contracted for one, anyway," as his mother started to talk over him. Contracted for one, and the serum, as far he knew, stopped working at forty. Saved by the bell.
"-and I certainly hope you're treating her properly. She's your wife, you know, not just some skank you picked up in a bar! Contracted, honestly, Angus, she’s going to be the mother of your children."
The woman scolding Gus looked absolutely tiny. Not frail, but a petite little pixie of a woman, her hair short and stark white - visible even in the reflection Lidia could see from her stealthy position. Her eyes, a mirror of Gus's, were very bright and sharp.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, Angus Walter," she said, though she did soften slightly, her tone warm and familiar, "I'm glad you're not in prison, sweetheart, but you can't expect me to just sit here half in the dark. Don’t you want me to meet her?"
“I don’t want you to crawl up her ass about grandkids, mom,” he dared a warning tone, “That’s all.”
“Isn’t that why you’re there?” she persisted.
“That doesn’t mean you should bug her about it!” Gus protested, “Having a baby with a stranger is kind of a head trip, you know?”
“And what are you bellyaching about, hmn?” Mrs. Marshal wasn’t budging on this, “You don’t have to carry a baby around inside you for nine months, she has to do all the work.”
“Jeez, mom,” Gus sounded vaguely horrified, “You don’t have to be so graphic.”
“Oh, you want graphic?”
“Mom, no-!”
“You were a week late-”
“-mom, you’ve told me this a thousand-”
“-and eighteen hours of labor, all for an eight and a half pound baby that I gave birth to naturally.”
There was silence, and finally, Gus found the courage to speak again.
“Don’t tell Lidia that story,” he said warily, “It’s bad enough she has a twin-”
“Oh my God, she has a twin?”
“Twin brother, yeah,” Gus sighed, his voice sounding muffled, like he’d put his hands over his face. Because he had.
“So you might have twins!?”
“Probably not, mom, they’re pretty rare,” he sounded pretty tired, and since he had a day job, he sort of was.
“Ohh wouldn’t that be so wonderful, though?”
“I’ll agree if you promise not to tell Lidia that story about how I was some kind of freak monster baby that wouldn’t come out of you.”
“You weren’t a freak,” there was quite a bit of cheek in her tone now, “You were just lazy. Not much changed.”
“Ha, ha.”
“Don’t look so put upon, Angus,” Clara said, “It’s wonderful, having a baby. A lot of work, but rewarding work. I don’t regret a thing. If you’re not going to let me meet her, sweetie, you could at least tell me what she’s like.”
“She’s gorgeous,” he said without hesitation, “Russian. Blonde. Blue eyes. Good at getting into trouble.”
“Well look at that big smile, young man,” Clara teased, her voice sly.
“What?” he protested, sounding suddenly guarded.
“I want to meet her,” she repeated, “Where is she, anyway?”
“Probably working late at the bar-”
“Bar!?”
“She’s a bartender.”
“Well I hope she’s going to quit when she’s pregnant, that’s no job for a pregnant woman, being on her feet at all hours!”
“Mom, for the last time, she’s not... I’ve lived here like, a week! She’s not a damn China doll, either. She’s tough. She can handle her shit.”
“You had better spoil her.”
“You know, I actually missed you for a little while.”
“Well, someone has to tell you how to behave, Angus Walter, because you’ve never been able to figure it out for yourself.”
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them then.
“I’m sorry, Angus,” Clara said softly, “That was-”
“Nah, it’s all right,” he sounded irritable but contrite, “I deserved it. I’m not going to be an ass about this, though, mom. I know it’s important. It’s probably the only worthwhile thing I’m going to do in my life, so I had better not fuck it up.”
“Angus.”
“It’s okay, mom,” he said, “I know I’m kind of a crappy son-”
“You aren’t-”
“-but I’m going to try to be a decent dad,” he sounded a little surprised by his own admission. There were a lot of things coming out of his mouth lately that he’d never expected.
“You’ll do just fine, sweetheart.”
“Thanks, mom.”
“I still want to meet her.”
Gus started to laugh, and his mother joined him. Right about that time, Lidia decided to push off the foyer wall and into the living room, still wearing her bar-outfit and her usual amused half-smile.
“Oh-!” Clara Marshal looked startled for a moment and Gus whirled, eyes wide and expression inexplicably guilty.
“Hey, Lidia,” he said with a nervous laugh, “Didn’t hear you come in.”
Crap he hoped she hadn’t heard most of that. That was strictly mom-son stuff, not... government mandated awkward wife stuff.
“This is her?” Clara looked flabbergasted, “Oh, Lidia, sweetheart, it’s so nice to meet you! I’m Angus’s mother, Clara. You can call me mom if you like.”
Gus, twisted in his seat with his back to his mother for the moment, offered Lidia a pained expression and mouthed I’m sorry. Really. It seemed way too soon to inflict his mother on her.
His apologetic look was returned with the slightest upward tick of one brow; connected to the same corner of her mouth, it deepened her amused expression. When her eyes cut to the Helper screen and the older woman there, Lidia sweetened her smile, but kept herself casually behind the couch.
“Is nice to meet you,” she nodded, smiling, her accent a bit thicker by fatigue. False fatigue. “I am glad to see they let the calling through.” Lidia leaned on the back of the couch like it was a bar.
Clara seemed to be watching the two of them keenly, and Gus turned back to his mother, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. He was definitely in between two worlds right now, and he didn’t especially care for it.
“We were just talking about you,” Clara said, “I was just telling my son that he had better be treating you like the beautiful young woman that you are. Don’t let him sass you, all right? You have my permission to slap him around a little when he gets out of hand.”
“Gee, thanks mom,” Gus said dryly.
“Shh, darling, the girls are talking.”
Gus wiped a hand over his face. Oh, boy.
“Has he been treating you well, dear?” Clara asked. Like her son, she had an open and kind face, although there was a hardness at her core that Gus didn’t seem to possess.
“Very well,” Lidia answered immediately, lifting both brows with the smile that came with it. “Perfect gentleman.” She glanced down and to the side at her contractual husband, who looked as though he might spontaneously combust at any moment. For some reason, she found it annoyingly endearing. Blushing like a twelve year old. She couldn’t help but momentarily mull over how a similar meeting with her parents would have gone.
Much, much differently; that was certain.
Clara snorted at that.
“Well, it’s nice of you to say so, anyway,” she said, “He certainly speaks highly of you.”
“Christ, mom-”
“Angus Walter, don’t interrupt your mother.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. Thirty nine and his mother still walked all over him. He loved her to death, but this was not exactly helping his image with his Russian contract bride.
“So you’re a bartender,” Clara said with interest, “Were you a bartender back in Russia, as well?”
If she’d noticed that Lidia had put on a tired tone, she certainly wasn’t showing it. She was ignoring as readily as her son’s humiliation.
Shifting her weight from one five and a half inch heel to the other, Lidia stooped over the back of the couch, resting her chin in her hand. “A dancer,” she answered, factly. “Not much use for dancers here, I am afraid.”
“Oh, a dancer,” Clara said, “Your favourite, Angus.”
Gus, who was tired of being told to be quiet, shrugged a shoulder and gestured with one hand in a silent Yep.
“Ballet?” Clara wondered politely, “Or exotic?”
That was unexpected. Lidia contained her surprised amusement, save for a slight pause in her otherwise mostly-fluid interrogation. Briefly, her eyes cut to Gus, then back to the white-haired woman halfway across the world.
“I find the two are...interchangeable,” she said with a crooked smile, showing teeth.
“If you say so, dear,” Clara shook her head a little, but she was still smiling, “I know it’s very late there, but I was just so... I know the circumstances are tense, but you two should be very proud of being involved in something like this. If you ever need any advice or anyone to talk to about the whole process, Lidia, you just feel free to call me, all right? Oh, maybe I should send over these old digital photo albums-”
“No way,” Gus said, earning a steely look from his mother. Once she’d finished pinning her son to the chair with her eyes, she turned a kinder expression on her new daughter-in-law, waiting to hear what she had to say.
Lidia was containing her own laughter, but only barely. “They give us many vivid pamphlets--” Nothing like information being shoved down your throat like the serum in their veins. “But I’ll not stop if you want to send these things.” She painted on a warm smile, gesturing politely before pushing from the couch to stand. “Again, is nice to meet you,” she said, waving and wandering off toward the bedroom stairs, heels clicking the hardwood at a lazy pace. Lidia worked on the buttons of her shirt as she went.
“Wonderful to meet you! Goodnight!” Clara called after her. Once she was off screen, she turned her attention back to her son, “You should get some sleep to. Goodnight, Angus. I love you.”
Gus smiled, “Love you to, mom. Talk to you soon.”
She waved, he waved back and hung up, just sitting there for a moment, rubbing his face. Well that had been all kinds of emasculating. And what about Lidia? She’d played the part - he wasn’t entirely cool with her not being super genuine with his mother, but he wasn’t about to press on that - but how long had she been standing in the back hall, there? It wasn’t like he’d said anything incriminating, but...
Ugh. He was exhausted.
Gus followed her upstairs and into the bedroom, yanking his own shirt off and tossing it on the floor somewhere, “Sorry about that, Lidia. I figured she’d be done talking to me before you got home. I know she’s a little much.”
“No reason for apology,” she said, truthfully unbothered. Her own shirt dropped into the bin by the bathroom as she wandered in, stepping out of her heels on the way. The motion sensor caught her movement and brought up the vanity lights. She threaded her hands through her hair to alleviate the heaviness of her shift, then went about peeling off bits and pieces of strategic jewelry. “Is good they let you see her.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking it was part of their family values strategy,” he said dryly, “Wouldn’t do if someone couldn’t call home to mom with the good news. Still. Thanks for talking to her.”
This was so awkward, and he wondered if it would’ve been worse if they hadn’t had their little party the day they’d been given their assignment. Better or worse. He really had no idea - at some point they probably had to move past it, but it was hard to get into it, considering.
“She liked you,” Gus said, mostly to hear himself talk. He wasn’t good at silences that he perceived to be uncomfortable.
Lidia’s mouth twitched up at the corners, but only slightly. “She is smart woman,” she replied with a soft breed of dryness. Void of earrings, necklaces and bracelets, she pulled at the zipper-side of her skirt and shimmied it down her thighs. The hiss of water from the shower followed.
He yanked off his jeans in her absence and sat on the edge of the bed in just his shorts, considering. Hell with it. He was tired, she’d worked a long shift, and for him, at least, things were just too bizarre. Trying to pull and fish conversation out of her wasn’t something he was up to at this particular hour, and quite frankly, he’d rather not think too hard on the hot blonde getting all wet and slippery in the shower-
Oh, it was like his own personal living Hell.
Shaking his head at himself, bemused, he got settled into bed. He wasn’t going to go and sleep on the damn couch when they’d had a damn sex marathon a few nights ago, but he wasn’t going to pull any moves, either. It was probably better for them to adjust to being roommates first, anyway.
He decided he wasn’t even remotely tired as he listened to Lidia take her shower, wide awake. Normally he was already asleep when she got in.
Falling into her normal routine of a good half-hour long shower, which melted away the subtle tension in her feet, legs, and back with water that turned her skin slightly pink, Lidia nearly forgot the man in her bed--their bed--had been awake instead of passed out like usual. Until she wandered back into the bedroom, twisting damp hair in a towel, and saw the glint of light in his eyes. Her brows arched in the darkness, but there was little more reaction. She tossed the towel in the bin, taking her eyes off his shadowy shape to concentrate on the final step of her routine--the apple-pear lotion.
Gus, who couldn’t help but look over when she emerged, rolled onto his side when she started to put the lotion on. Right, so, he was going to wait until she was asleep, and then he’d take a half-hour shower. Maybe an hour. In a normal situation, without weird government marriage contracts and injections that switched out blanks with live rounds, he would’ve been all over her. All over her like a fat kid on a chocolate cake. Instead, he was laying on his side, his back to an amazing lotion rubbing show, contemplating jerking off in the shower.
It would be better in the morning. She slept in, and by the time she woke up, they had about an hour overlap before he had to go to work - and he knew they would probably switch him to night shift soon, considering. Considering.
He didn’t make a peep despite his inner turmoil, laying very still with his back to her.