Who: Molly Carpenter and Sarissa What: An Inevitable Encounter When: Wednesday Where: Out on a Lunch Run Warnings: None Status: Closed
The relationship mess was over. Molly had made up with Barry. Her life was getting back to normal here in Madison Valley, and she was feeling pretty good about things. She even had a small smile on her face more often than not.
Today she was on lunch from work, and on her way to Hinkles for a quick bite. Her mind was running between things she needed to do this afternoon for Tessa and what she might do with Barry tonight. So she wasn’t exactly prepared for it when she rounded a corner and came face to face with the Summer Lady.
Molly’s eyes went wide as she stared at Sarissa. “Oh,” she muttered. “Hi.”
***
Sarissa, too, stopped in her tracks.
“Oh!” Despite the surprise, she managed a warm smile. “Hello Molly.”
Before they had become cosmic opposites, trapped on opposing sides of an eternal war, Sarissa had liked Molly. She hadn't known the other woman long, or well, but Molly had been helpful and kind and much more sensitive to Sarissa’s plight than Harry had been.
This was the same Molly. This one hadn't been saddled with the Mantle of Winter Lady yet - and if she stayed, she might never. Why treat her like the woman she was going to become when the woman she was now had so much promise?
“Are you on your way in?” Sarissa nodded at the diner.
***
Molly forced up a smile, but her mind couldn’t get past Sarissa calling her the Winter Lady. Harry hadn’t denied it either so it had to be true. She hadn’t gotten the full story yet. Maybe now she could.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m on my lunch hour. Thought I’d grab a soup and salad.” She jerked her head toward the diner. “Want to join me?”
***
Surprised that Molly would make the offer given the unpleasant surprise Sarissa had dropped on her, she looked at the future Winter Lady for a moment before nodding. “Yes, I would, thank you.”
They walked in together, drawing a few appreciative looks as they took a seat at a booth. Sarissa ignored them.
“Where do you work?”
***
Oh, Molly wasn’t being as friendly as it might seem. She had questions. A LOT of questions, and this was the best way to answers. “I work in the office for Right at Home,” she answered as she held the door open. “We help the elderly.”
Once inside, Molly just continued with small talk until they were sat at a table and had ordered their lunches. Then she looked dead at Sarissa’s nose...no soul gaze, thank you! “You want to tell me about this Winter Lady stuff?”
***
Sarissa paused in the middle of lifting her water glass. Then, after a breath, she finished the motion and took a sip of her water.
“I'm surprised you haven't already asked Harry,” she said mildly. This was a minefield of her own making, when she'd greeted Molly upon her arrival, but Sarissa had no intention of being caught in it.
***
“I have,” Molly answered. “He was going to tell me then that stupid relationship crap happened and we’ve been avoiding each other.” And that was the most truth she’d told to anyone since she was fifteen and her father cornered her with where were you last night. After that, she’d learned how to dodge her dad.
“So how about it?” Molly arched a brow and tried for her best mom face.
***
“I see.” And Sarissa did see. While she hadn’t been caught in the relationship confusion herself, she had see enough of the aftermath even on the network to understand that it had thrown a lot of relationships into disarray.
“Harry’s not the easiest to deal with even without that added in. Still, I think he’s the best person to talk to about it. He has a fuller understanding of what happened than I do.”
***
“Who are you telling?” Molly said with a roll of her eyes. “I was his apprentice.” And the whammy the town had thrown at them had been a younger girl’s wish fulfillment for Molly. Unfortunately, it had messed with her relationship with Barry. That had been settled, but it hadn’t been fun.
Sarissa was dodging. One of Molly’s brows twitched upward as she looked at the Summer Lady. Her mother’s stubbornness came to the fore as a smile lifted her lips. “Oh, I’ll get him to tell me, but I find that getting information from more than once source paints a more realistic picture.”
***
Sarissa realized then that she liked Molly. She hadn’t really had a chance to know the other woman before things had gone south, but she was starting to see her spirit and drive and cleverness, and she felt a small pang of regret that one day they were going to become enemies.
“Why don’t you talk to Harry first,” Sarissa suggested, “Then you can find your other source.”
She was dodging, but she didn’t want to take opportunity from Harry to be the first one to tell his ex-apprentice. First of all, because it was rude. Second, because she didn’t want to wake the Knight. And, most importantly, because it was Harry’s responsibility to this young woman.
***
“Because I’m asking you.” Molly’s voice was losing its pleasant edge, moving closer to her more sane moments as the Rag Lady. She didn’t answer to anyone anymore. Harry had died, and her apprenticeship ended. Even though it hadn’t been a real death he had responsibilities to other things like Mab and Demonreach. Molly didn’t even answer to the White Council anymore since they still sent Wardens after her. If not for Ramirez’s interference, they’d have caught up to her a time or two.
“Let me put it this way,” she said with a tight smile and a controlled tone. “You can answer my questions or you can send me to ask the Winter Knight about me becoming the Winter Lady. Do you want to watch the world burn, or feel awkward for twenty minutes?”
***
Sarissa didn’t flinch.
“You’re not the Winter Lady yet,” she pointed out. “And you weren’t concerned about the world burning before this relationship thing happened and made things awkward between you. I don’t want to get into the middle of whatever’s going on between you two. Please don’t put me in that position.”
***
“There isn’t anything going on between us,” Molly countered. “And if I were the Winter Lady then poking the Winter Knight wouldn’t be a problem. But I’m not, and now the Winter Knight knows what he’s missing by not being with me. If I start pressuring him with questions he might remember all of that.” She arched a brow. “See where I’m going here?”
***
Sarissa did see where she was going there: that the Winter Knight might decide to...wake up in order to get himself a Lady. Sarissa did have a concern about the Winter Knight making an appearance - she always did - but she had a feeling Molly’s concern had another cause.
“So you don’t want to talk to him at all about this?”
***
“Oh, no,” Molly corrected. “I do, and I will. He and I just need a little space from each other right now. It’s good for everyone. Especially my actual boyfriend who got his heart more than a little bruised by the town.”
She leaned her arms on the table. “But I need to know what happened.”
***
Although Sarissa still felt that Harry should be the one to tell Molly all this, she understood Molly’s desire to know. Being in the dark never really worked well for anyone, especially with knowledge like this.
“Promise me you'll ask him before the month’s out.”
***
That was a fair request. Sarissa didn’t know Molly all that well to know whether she was blowing smoke up Sarissa’s ass or not. Molly nodded.
“I swear by my name and power. I will ask Harry before the end of the month.”
***
Molly wasn't Fae yet, so she was still capable of lying, but Sarissa chose to believe her. She had to have faith in humanity, or it would be too easy to lose her own.
“Maeve,” she said with a sigh. “She realized Queen Mab was looking to replace her with me, so she orchestrated things so that I'd take the Summer Mantle instead. What she didn't realize was that Mab was training two possible replacements.”
***
No, Molly wasn’t Fae, but it really meant something when a wizard swore on their name and power. If Molly didn’t live up to her promise she’d lose her magic. And be cursed. For the rest of her life. The oath she gave hadn’t been a small one.
She listened to the explanation. It was briefer than she expected, but when the implication set in her baby blues went wide and she gasped. “...Lea.”
Harry’s wicked godmother had taken over where Harry had left off with Molly’s lessons. The reason she gave had been something about her oath to Harry and Harry’s mother. She’d kept Molly alive when Molly’s head had been more than a little scrambled, taught her...in the harshest way possible. The rest of the reason for training her became crystal clear.
***
“I'm sorry,” Sarissa said quietly. And she was. She, of all people, knew what Molly was in for. She'd had a front row ticket to watching madness overtake Maeve. How much of it was their shared mental disorder she didn't know, but the Mantle couldn't have helped.
***
Molly’s mind was stable at best. The damage done at Chichen Itza was pretty extensive. Add a massive touch of Faery and...boom. Molly knew it, too. She started to shake a little as she stared at Sarissa.
“I have to go…” she suddenly said then made to get up from the table. Her actions were so rapid she hit her knee on the table as she tried to clear it.
***
Sarissa was on her feet as well, although she was much more graceful about it.
“Molly,” she said, her voice soft but clear. All those years in rehab nursing were paying off. She'd dealt with worse freakouts than this; she'd brought Harry Dresden back from the edge.
“Stop. Breathe. Don't go out there, not like this.”
***
Molly backed away, not wanting to be touched. She was close to a panic attack. All she wanted to do was get away from here, from people, from the truth. But what Sarissa was saying was so much like the mantras Lea made her do to calm down that it penetrated the fog.
She held a hand up as she forced herself to breathe slowly. “...don’t touch me…”
***
Sarissa lifted her hands to show she had no intention of coming closer. She'd never planned to touch Molly, knowing that touch sometimes made panic attacks worse. She didn't do anything else, just waited for Molly to come to herself.
***
It isn’t real. It isn’t real. It isn’t real. That was what she’d chant to herself every time she woke up from the nightmares. It was what Lea made her say over and over. It was easier to believe here in Madison Valley.
“I’m all right,” she whispered, refusing to look at Sarissa. “But...I should go.”
***
Sarissa looked at her for a long moment to try to get a sense for her stability. She didn't want the young wizard to run out and do harm to herself or anyone else in her panic.
But Molly was strong - she could see that - and she finally nodded and retook her seat.
“Please come to me if you have any questions, if you need anything Harry can't - or won't - give you. You're not the Winter Lady here, Molly. I would like to be your friend.”
***
Molly couldn’t think very well. The beginnings of a migraine thudded behind her eyes, setting off flashes of light in the corner of her vision. She’d need to get to Tessa. Spill some things to someone she knew and trusted. It would help calm her down before she went home to find Barry.
“Trust me,” Molly said with a brief glance to Sarissa. “No way I’m not cornering Harry now.”
***
“Good luck, Molly,” Sarissa said softly. And she let her go.