Clementine Lewis (clemsghostgene) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2022-10-25 16:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, clementine lewis (clemsghostgene) |
Who: Clementine Lewis & Mitch Morgan
Where: Mitch's House
When: Just after her arrival
What: Arrival
Status: Completed GDoc
Warnings: None for Now
Once again Clem had found herself thrust into a situation that most kids would be terrified of, but after everything she had been through already she didn't lose her cool very easily. Yes, it was scary to be here without her mother, but at least her dad was here. They had only just began to work on their relationship before she had arrived here, but she knew that he cared about her more than anything in the world. And if she were being honest, Clem knew that she loved him too. How could she not love someone who had fought so hard for her? Even if she didn't understand a lot about things she did understand that much. Mitch had done everything he had done to keep her from suffering. And aside from that she had Henry with her, and that was the best gift that her dad had ever given her. She was sitting on the couch and Henry was sitting on the floor beside her with his head in her lap. It wasn't long after her arrival that her dad had came to her rescue. And she had been very happy to see such a friendly face right away. She had rushed into his arms, Henry in toe. Now, nearly an hour later she was still grateful for the arrival of her father in that moment. She hadn't had a chance to eat before arriving here, so her dad was making her something to eat. She wasn't the type to rush him either, so that was led to her being curled up on the couch. She heard movement behind her, so she turned to see her dad returning from the Kitchen with a plate. So, with a smile on her face she stood up and made her way over to him. "Here let me help you. Did you make something for yourself too?" she asked, not wanting to be rude and eat in front of him if he was hungry too. *** Mitch was still a little in shock that Clementine was there. He was just hoping like hell that she would stay around, that this wasn’t just a repeat of that whole thing where the town had dumped random children on them. At least this time he wasn’t wrangling Clem and another kid at the same time. He was pushing the shock aside in order to be a functional human being and take care of his daughter. “I ate before I picked you up,” Mitch assured her. “So you just worry about feeding yourself.” He handed her the plate. “And we’ll feed Henry, too.” Something that was made much easier by the fact that he already had a dog and could just dump some of Max’s food into a bowl – which was exactly what he went to do, setting up a second bowl of food by the water dish. Max, for his part, had been hanging back and not getting all bouncy the way he usually did, almost like he knew he needed to be on his best behaviour. For an Australian Shepherd, that not bouncing thing was a miracle. *** Clem nodded her head in acceptance when Mitch told her that he had already eaten. She had just wanted to make sure. So, she sat down and began to eat the food on her plate, but after a few moments she finished a bite and then turned back to face Mitch. “Will you come sit with me?” she asked, wanting him closer to her. Arriving here had been a lot for her to take in and for some reason she just wanted someone closer to her. And right now her dad was the person that was going to be there for her. Somehow she could just feel that he wasn’t going to let her down. She also knew that having her here and not having anyone else they knew would put a lot more on his plate. So,she would be sure to help out whenever she could, because she wanted him to know that he wasn’t alone anymore either. “After I eat, I am happy to help clean up” she added. “And then we can take the dogs out for a walk” she offered, voicing out loud the idea of helping him as much as possible. **** “You don’t have to help clean up,” he said, giving his daughter an affectionate smile as he went to join her on the couch. “This time.” Look, she’d just showed up in town, he was going to cut her some slack for a little while. That was about when Max approached, headbutting Henry almost playfully. “Max, be nice,” Mitch cautioned. “He doesn’t know you yet.” Not that he thought either dog would do anything, but even so. He was working on training Max. “But taking the dogs for a walk does sound like a good idea,” he said, not wanting Clem to think he was just trying to shoot down all her ideas. “We can get them some exercise, and you and I can start figuring things out for you here.” Mostly revolving around her going to school. *** That affectionate smile coming from her dad really did make her happy. It was nice to be reminded how much he really did care about her. A part of her had always known that Mitch loved her, but the moments like this when he let her in reaffirmed that feeling for her. “I just don’t want you to think you have to do everything alone” she admitted, showing once again that maturity she seemed to have. “Sounds good” she answered, though not sure what he had meant about figuring things out for her. Though she had an idea. School was the first thing that came to mind and honestly that made her a little nervous, because she didn’t like the idea of being the new freak in school. “Do you mean school?” she asked, hoping she was wrong. She knew that she needed to finish her education, but she was hoping school would be different here or that perhaps she could go about it a different way. *** “Pretty much, yeah,” Mitch said. “Because really, we’ve got two options. Go to the school here or do homeschooling. I’m pretty sure I know which one you’d prefer, but you still get a say.” Because he might not know much of anything about how to raise a kid, but he knew Clem had been through too much to take away what agency of her own she could manage to have. Most kids, he’d probably have told them they’d do traditional schooling first and then go from there, but Clem? Deserved the choice. Maybe he was filtering his feelings through the fact that he’d met the adult Clem, had known her, had been there for the birth of her son. He didn’t know. All he did know was that she’d had enough taken away from her in her life even as a kid. *** After a few moments of thinking about everything she had been through at school back home, and the fact that Mitch was now giving her a choice. She was very grateful for this; the fact that he was respecting her and everything she had been through enough to give her the choice of how she wanted to handle it going forward. “Could we try homeschooling first?” she asked, wondering if he would really go for the idea. “I am not sure if the school here would be the same as back home, but I would rather not deal with all of that again” she added. Sure there was always the chance that she could actually manage to keep her seizures to herself, but honestly it wasn’t a chance she wanted to take. *** “Absolutely fair,” Mitch said with a nod. “Means you’ll probably be spending a lot of time during the day in my office while I’m at work – I’m the staff vet for the animal shelter – but somehow I don’t think you’ll mind that.” Because really, he’d have no problems leaving her at home on her own but at least for a little while, he was going to keep her as close as he could. Call it overprotective, even he’d admit that, but he couldn’t help it. Clem was one of the two most important people in his life. *** “I would like that” she admitted right away, and then she blushed slightly. Perhaps she had been too eager, but there was no hope in holding back now. “Spending my days with you, I mean” she added, wanting to make sure to clarify what she had said. “Does that mean you would be my teacher?” she asked, hopefully. That certainly seemed to be what it would mean to do homeschooling, but she wanted to make sure that her assumptions were correct. “And I get to spend all of that time with the animals? Sounds like the best day ever to me” she added, grinning sheepishly up at her father. She would be happy to do her lessons with him and get to know more about him and his work in this new place. *** Mitch couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah, I’d be your teacher,” he said. ‘Or at least primarily. Depends on if we run into a subject we need more help with.” Because Madison Valley had no shortage of brilliant people who would be happy to help. “Okay, so, why don’t you focus on eating and we’ll talk more about it afterwards?” *** “You’re the smartest person I know, so I am sure you will be a good teacher” she answered, before taking another bite and looking up at him. She may not know a lot about her father, but she did know how intelligent he really was, so in that moment she was just repeating the things she had heard about him. “Deal” she added, turning back to her food. *** |