WHO: Harry D and Molly C WHAT: Harry finally tells her what he has been afraid to tell. WHEN: Recently WARNINGS: Nada STATUS: Closed and Complete
This had been a long time coming, and Harry felt bad for not attending to it earlier. He owed Molly a lot. She deserved better, and he had not always come through for her. So here he was, headed for where Molly stayed, a basket under his arm, with brownies, a chicken soup, and more inside. A peace offering, in addition to the truth.
He knocked, nervous, hopeful, and with a lopsided smile on.
***
Tessa had helped calm her down, but Molly was still really upset. She did NOT want to be the Winter Lady. She WOULD like to kick Lea in the shins. Repeatedly! As for Harry, there were a whole lot of conflicted emotions going on there...so of course he was knocking on her door.
She scowled with tear-reddened eyes when she saw who was standing there and what he had with him then slammed the door shut in his face.
“YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME!” she shouted through the door.
***
Seeing that glare, he sighed, and slumped against the other side of the door. “You’re right, I should have. I was just… I don’t have a good excuse. “
He scrubbed his face as he turned to face the door again. “I was just trying to let you have some time to enjoy this place. Despite the occasional mess, this place was good for you, and you seemed happy, and… dumb as it sounds, I didn’t want to be the one to ruin it for you. It was wrong, but… there you go. I am sorry.”
***
The door got yanked opened again. “Bullshit! You were too busy motorboating my tits not that long ago to tell me the truth!”
Her neighbor across the way had cracked the door open and Molly’s glare got turned on them. “Mind your own damned business! It’s not like I don’t hear you cranking Bieber at two in the morning!”
***
Harry opened his mouth, and sighed. “I’m telling you the truth, and it’s up to you to believe it or not.” He tried not to think about that week where he and she had enjoyed far too many good days and nights and moments inbetween.
He had no idea why that version of him had not told her. He only knew why he had not.
“I came to tell everything I knew and try to help.”
***
Molly eyed him for a moment then stepped to the side to let Harry in. “There better be beer involved.”
Her place was a bit of a mess, and she was decidedly wearing sweatpants and a hoody instead of jeans and a sweater. Molly needed comfort more than a clean apartment and public clothes.
***
“Beer, hamburgers, bacon, chips, chicken soup, and brownies.” He chuckled, then sobered as he stepped in, and aside to let her close the door. “I may have been stress cooking ever since I found out.”
Until he got the courage up to come over.
***
Molly gave Harry a sharp look that made her look so much like her mother it would mean death in cold, slow ways if anyone pointed it out to her. The expression emphasized her action of yanking a beer out then opening it. “Dibs on the bacon and brownies.”
She took a long drink of the beer then arched a brow at Harry. “So tell me what you knew and when you knew it.”
***
Harry swallowed at that expression. He remembered it a few time from the week of wildness, but it was much more effective now. Welp. He gladly yielded the beer.
“Sure, It’s all for you anyway.”
At her words he sighed. “When I arrived, I had seen the meeting, where Maeve went crazy, Mab plotted, and where Maeve died, and you became the Winter Lady, prepared, unknowingly, by my Godmother.” He shook his head, bitter sureness in his memories. “I witnessed it wash over you, and I knew what it meant. I knew the fight you had ahead, and what it might mean in the future. And I worried about you.”
He paced away then back.
“When I got here, I realized the Mantle was weaker, here, or I was getting stronger, and that Mab and the Winter Court, held no power here. And I started to have hope for me.”
He nodded to her. “When you arrived, I was worried, and I was going to tell you, I was, but then… you started actually having some good here, and not all bad things, and I told myself, why not let her enjoy that and not have to deal with nightmares? “ He blew out a long breath.
“It was dumb. It was self-serving. And it was wrong. And I am sorry.” BUt he also knew he would likely have done it all again.
***
Molly had the beer almost finished by the time Harry was done. She watched him pace. That was nothing new. He’d do the same thing when he was giving her lessons. Molly used to keep notes in the margins of her books on how many circles he made of the room and in which direction.
She began to realize that until it had actually happened Harry hadn’t known. Her scowl eased, but she sure as hell wasn’t smiling. Yet.
“I just needed to know you didn’t know,” Molly said as she looked down. “When you were recovering on Demonreach. Y’know? That Mab hadn’t told you.”
***
“No, not until the moment it happened. Looking back, I should have realized what was going on. There were clues, but no, I had no warning at all. If I had, I would have moved the world to stop it.” Just like he had changed everything for his daughter. He might not be able to fully admit it, but he would have gone even farther for Molly.
A lot farther.
***
She nodded, accepting that then slowly sunk into a chair at the table with a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to go home. I don’t want that. I’d rather die than work for or with Mab. Everything bad that’s happened to you and me has been because of Faerie.” She shook her head, her eyes staring at the food. “I never. Want to go back.”
***
“Me either. The longer I’m here, the more I want to stay. I’m learning how to suppress the mantle and hold my own against it, and I…” He flushed. “Who knows, I may even find some romance in their place that isn’t caused by dome doom.”
“Then eat, drink, and live, here. Be here. We can’t control what the dome does, but at least we can live.”
***
A ghost of a smile flickered across Molly’s face. It sounded like this place was good for people like her and Harry. She almost wished her dad were here to see it. Almost.
“Romance, huh?” Her eyes lifted, but not her face. “Sarissa?”
***
“Maybe some romance. Maybe.” And then he choked. “What? No!” He facepalmed. “She’s nice and all, and she could be a good partner for someone, but not me. Nope. I… I met this girl, awhile back, and again at the speed dates? And then again after the relationship confusion thing and… “ He blew out a long breath.
“I like her. I don’t know if we’re headed for a real romance, or just friends with benefits. But I like her.”
***
It was easier for Molly’s smile to make more of an appearance when the subject of conversation wasn’t on her. She was still twitchy. That was obvious enough, but she looked at Harry with a more solid and knowing smile as she put her chin in her hand.
“What’s her name?” It was almost in a sing song. “How old is she? Where’s she from?”
***
“Her name is Sybil and she is about my age, and she is from Earth, from England, from the nineteenth century. She’s been in Madison longer than me, and has a young baby girl, Sybbie.” Harry spoke of her softly, but someone who knew him as well as Molly did undoubtedly would be able to see how much he cared.
She had come to mean a lot to him. Not yet as much as say, Molly, but rising in a very quick way.
***
“Sybil, huh?” Molly smiled even more. “You do see the irony in you, a wizard, dating someone named after one of the most famous oracles in history, right?” Hey, she paid attention to Greek mythology.
“But she sounds nice,” she said finally. “And if she makes you happy then I like her.”
***
“I do. And I did my due diligence, just in case, the first time I heard the name. But yes, she is one hundred percent mundane, but likes magic.” He did not say that Sybil got off on it some, also, nope.
“Thank you, Molly. How are things with Barry?”
***
Molly shrugged. “We’re working it out, but shit keeps knocking my feet out from under me. Puts me in a tailspin and I get back to feeling like I’m just a hard breath away from being the Rag Lady again.” Her smile faded, and that frown was back. “I need that to stop if I’m going to be happy with him. So if there’s anything else I need to know now would be a good time to spill it.”
***
Harry sat down thinking. “Not that I recall. That meeting was the last thing I saw. Then I was here.”
He rubbed his face, thinking hard. “We should sit down and talk about old cases, make sure there are no surprises there to spring out at you.”
***
Molly nodded. “Not today,” she said in a tired voice. These anxiety episodes were hard on her physically, emotionally and mentally. “But I’m telling you. If Lea shows up here I am kicking her in every no-no place that bitch has.”
***
“Can I make popcorn and watch?” Harry had some bones to pick with that woman, too. Not as many as Molly, maybe, but older ones.
“Tonight, there is food and beer, and if you want company, we can hang, and if not, I can go.”
It was new, this… friendship.
***
“You can even hold my coat,” Molly said with a return of her smile.
“Stay,” she said as she pulled out two more beers then offered him one. “We can Netflix Star Wars or something.”
***
“Sounds like a plan.”
Harry nodded and took the beer, ready to relax a little. Hopefully this place would leave them alone.