Who: Savannah/Sean/Kristof What: family lunch Where: Off Broadway When: During Antag week Warnings: Low Status: closed/g-doc
Savannah walked to the agreed upon place for lunch. She found her feet moved too quickly for how nervous this lunch made her feel. Seeing Sean wouldn’t be a big deal. Back home she had a great relationship with her older half-brother, unlike the relationship she had with Bryce. Which basically equaled nothing. But Kristof? She’d killed her father in an attempt to resurrect her mom, plus she thought something happened to Paige.
She took a deep breath and opened the door, prepared to greet people if they’d beat her here already. Savannah looked down at her feet for a minute and then shook her head and prepared for this meeting she’d organized. First thing, she should definitely move out of the doorway. It didn’t help how concerned she felt with the arrival of Josef Nast. He was her uncle by blood, but that was it.
Kristof had shown up first, and he really couldn’t be blamed for his nerves. He wouldn’t force Savannah into any more of a connection than she wanted, but God he hoped she actually wanted to be a solid presence in his life. If she didn’t, though, he’d deal with it – however much he wouldn’t like it.
At the moment he was more concerned with checking up on people, considering his brother’s arrival. Approximately nobody needed Josef there and as much as Kristof wished he could say it was good to see his brother? It wasn’t. It really, really wasn’t.
He was saved from further worry by Sean arriving. “Tell me to relax.”
All Sean did was hug his father before sitting, laughing as he did so. “Relax, Dad. It’s going to be fine, I promise. And if necessary, I’ll distract her with that whole ‘hey yeah I got married’ thing.”
And a few minutes after Sean’s arrival, there came Savannah. Before Kristof could have a reaction, Sean lifted his hand to catch Savannah’s attention.
Savannah smiled when she saw Sean. While she faulted for a second over seeing her father, she didn’t run away, which felt like a win to her. It just…she didn’t know how to feel.
“Hey.” She hugged Sean. And then she paused briefly before she squeezed Kristof’s shoulder. “Hi Dad.” She sat at the table. “So I need to say that Josef sucks.”
Kristof would one hundred percent take that gesture. It was a good starting point. “Yes, yes he does,” he agreed. “I’m pretty sure there’s at least half a dozen people in town currently and actively planning his murder.”
“And absolutely nobody would argue if it actually happened,” was Sean’s contribution. “Between people who can manage to make a body disappear and people capable of supplying alibis should they be needed after all, it’s absolutely something we could make happen.”
“Even Nick seems like he’d be down for the murder and…it’s Nick. He’s the puppies of werewolves.” Savannah liked Nick and had spent time with him at Stonehaven, but he liked everyone. A lot. So, for him to not like someone spoke volumes.
“I have to say, this is not the worst bonding experience.” Savannah grinned at her brother. “I’m happy to help.” Then she looked at her father and studied him for a minute. “I don’t know what he’ll do with the lack of a cabal here.”
Then she asked, “So, what do you two do here when we’re not ragging on Josef?”
“I work at the refugee law firm,” Kristof explained. “One of the founding partners, actually. Lucas and I started it with a woman named Elle Woods – I always thought it was proof of the fact that he and I are actually able to get along given enough motivation.” They’d never been friends, but they’d been at least moderately friendly.
The first time, anyway. The second, not as much – though to be fair, Lucas hadn’t been there nearly as long the second time.
“And I’m teaching over at Ivy Tech, one of the colleges. Business classes.” A shrug. “Figured I’d put my degree to work.”
Savannah stared at her father and blinked. Yes, she could see him as a lawyer. She could even believe his working with refugees in this place. But founding it with Lucas? “I’m sorry. Paige’s Lucas?” She continued to stare at her father for a moment. “Sorry Dad, but this feels like one of those ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ situations.”
She smiled and said, “They’re lucky to have you as a teacher, Sean.” Of course her brother would make himself useful. It was something she loved about him.
Kristof just laughed and dug his wallet out of his pocket. “Will a business card with the firm’s name suffice for now?” he said, digging the card out and holding it out. “I’ve got pictures, yes, but they’re on my home computer so we’ll save those for another time.”
Sean couldn’t help smiling at his sister’s compliment. “It’s not something I ever pictured myself doing, but I wanted to do something that I just… wouldn’t ever do at home.” He fiddled absently with his ring as he said, “I’m teaching business classes and my husband’s teaching a chunk of the computer classes.”
Savannah looked at the business card and smiled at Kristof. “Good for you, being able to put your differences aside and work together. Who else works at the firm now?” She felt comfortable enough to lean against her father for a few seconds before she sat straight again.
She went to say something and only managed, “Hus…band? You GOT MARRIED?!” And he hadn’t told her before now? What the hell? “I need to know everything about him.”
“We’ve had other people over the years, but at the moment I’m the only lawyer. I do have an assistant on-staff part time, Ianto’s pretty much a godsend.” Kristof had lost count of exactly how glad he was to have the other man around.
Sean’s smile was not quite a shy one as he said, “In my defense, it wasn’t much before you got here,” he said. “I figured letting you settle in and start adjusting was a better idea than throwing my personal life at you right away.”
He’d had good intentions, at least!
“His name’s Alex, he’s a couple years older than me, and… well, he was supposed to be a one night bad decision two years ago. It backfired spectacularly.”
Savannah looked at her father for a second. “Do you need any help with research? I don’t think I can sit on my ass forever.” And maybe it would help her get to know her father a little better. Or maybe it was the worst idea she’d had, which really said something.
She laughed so hard at her brother. “I could have told you you weren’t cut out for any one night stands, Sean.” Savannah had gone through a string of them in the past, and Sean never struck her as the type. Of course, his life here was different. For one thing, he could be out.
“I even failed at the first one, because Ianto and I are friends!” A pause. “By the way, it was one hundred percent before he started working for Dad.”
Kristof’s extremely mature response was to start laughing at the awkward look on his son’s face. He shook his head after a moment and turned his attention to Savannah’s question. “I could absolutely use research help. Even with Ianto, it’s overwhelming. If I’ve got both of you, it’ll be that much easier.”
Savannah laughed so hard at Sean’s expression she ended up gasping for air. “Somehow I don’t think Dad felt too worried about it, Sean.” And then as the laughter gave way to giggles she shook her head. “You deserve to be happy. And I’m glad you are. Really.” She might not do serious and emotional very well or often, but she could when it seemed important to her brother.
“Okay. That would be great. I just…don’t want to not contribute around Paige’s.” She even did dishes and cleaning things these days without much grumbling. Somehow she always found it easier to help at the Pack house, probably because they expected her to be independent. And while she knew Paige wouldn’t care about her getting a job, Savannah did.
“So why don’t you come by the office soon and we’ll get you started?” Kristof suggested. “Whenever you feel up to it.” Because he knew things were still going to be awkward between them for a while, so he wasn’t going to push her. Savannah could take her time and he knew she would show up when she was ready because she didn’t break promises.
Maybe things would work out for them after all. He could deal with awkwardness and hesitancy for a while.
“Sounds good.” Savannah thought about it. “Maybe Monday?” Would give her a few days to adjust to …everything, really.