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Astor Bennett wants to kill things (miami_angel97) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2009-02-15 02:58:00

Entry tags:

astor bennett, complete, day 32, laura moon

Day 32
Who: Astor Bennett and Laura Moon
What: Astor's not feeling well and can't figure out the thermometer
When: Day 32, morning
Where: B214, Astor's room
Status: Incomplete
Rating: G

When Laura agreed to come over and help her out, Astor shut her journal, tucked it neatly between the mattresses and rolled over in bed, groaning and clutching the teddy bears (one with a hot water bottle inside it, as per Rose's suggestion) tightly. Her eyes fluttered shut and she furrowed her brow against an uncomfortable flop of protest from her stomach after having rolled over. She really hoped that her bellyache was just that. That perhaps she'd indulged in too much sugar against Sam, Sam Winchester's advice. At least if it was that, she'd feel better sooner and she could play Candyland with Gray.

Being stuck in bed was sucky already, but being stuck in bed without Cody to talk to or Mom to make her feel better? That sucked the big one. It was almost as bad as being sick when she was at the neighbor's house cuz Mom and Dex both had to work at night. As far as Astor was concerned, there was nothing worse than being sick and not being at home. It made it easier for her that her room here looked identical to the one at home, but still. It wasn't home.

A knock on the door made Astor open her eyes again. Her mom would kill her for not getting up to look through the peep hole to check who it was, but she didn't want to move and it was probably Laura, anyway. "Come on in," she called out miserably, closing her eyes again.

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spitandviolets
2009-02-20 12:51 pm UTC (link)

Beep beep beep. Laura looked down at the screen. 98.7. That was no fever. Yes, it was not the normal 98.6, but the girl was in bed with blankets on and everything else. Of course she was going to be warm. A small smile crossed Laura's face, and she shook her head. "No, Astor, you don't have a fever at all. You are as cool as you should be."

She set the thermometer down on the bedside table. Smoothing her hand over the girl's forehead, she chuckled some. "That means that you're going to be just fine. It's probably just nerves or something that you ate. It will feel horrible for a little while longer, but you're going to be just fine. Nothing to worry about at all. That's a relief, isn't it?"

Getting up, she grabbed a chair from across the room and dragged it over, sitting beside her bed. She liked the grin that the girl had. Kids usually were good about keeping secrets. Well, what could letting her know hurt? People shouldn't lie to children. They shouldn't go out of their way to make sure that they knew everything about, well, everything, but there was no harm in telling things as they were when they asked. Her sister had always said that was what would have made Laura a terrible mother. 'You never know your limits!' she said.

How to start? Reaching into her shirt, she produced a beautiful, sparkling gold coin on a gold chain. It seemed to glow with a certain radiance all its own. Reluctant to touch it, as always, Laura slid her fingers down the chain, letting the disk rest in her palm. She held it closer so Astor could see. This was the most technical description of the how and what she was that she had given. She smiled some. It was an awkward position and was probably uncomfortable for Astor. Taking the chain from around her neck, she held the coin out to the girl. Removing it was not the issue. It was giving it away that was the issue. So long as Laura wanted to possess it, as long as it belonged to her, the power of the miniature sun would keep her as she was. The moment she surrendered, allowed someone else to take it for keeps, she'd revert to being a corpse. She wasn't sure that she could ever come back. Fortunately, she knew that if it was stolen, she'd continue to exist.

"This," she said, her dull eyes studying the girl's face, "is my secret. It's magic, a very ancient, very powerful kind of magic. It is magic that belonged to a god. He was a very powerful god, a god of the Celts, the people who lived long ago in Ireland and Scotland and Wales and Britain. My husband learned a special ability. He learned how to reach his hand out and steal gold from this sun god's treasury. He learned this trick from a leprechaun. The one time that he tried, he reached out and grabbed this coin, which isn't really a coin at all, but a miniature sun, a fragment of that god's power."

Well, she was a better story teller than she thought. She had expected herself to be miserable at it. She could not, after all, lie. Sometimes, however, the truth was more interesting than any fiction could dream of being. She cracked her neck and nodded. Good, Laura, keep going.

"I did something very, very bad that upset my husband very much. He was very disappointed, but he still loved me. Unfortunately, we couldn't talk about it because I died in a car crash that was the result of the thing that upset my husband. He came to my funeral from a long way away, because he had been in jail for doing something that wasn't really his fault, and he threw the coin into the grave while they were burying me. I woke up because of the magic that is in this coin. I'm not alive, though. I'm dead. I just don't do what other dead people do. I walk around like a living person, but I don't eat or sleep or do many of the things that you do."

"This coin means a lot to me. It's my husband's forgiveness for that very bad thing that I did, because he never told me that he forgave me. This, though, is even better than him just saying the words. He gave me another chance to do things better this time, though it's a lot harder and more complicated." And I think that I failed this time, too.

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miami_angel97
2009-02-20 06:27 pm UTC (link)

Laura smiled and shook her head before announcing to Astor that she did not have a fever. Astor smiled back gratefully. "Good," she said. Her stomach still didn't feel very good, but it made her happy to know that she wasn't getting sick. At least it would only last until her belly settled and hopefully that would only be until a little later today. Maybe she could still play Candyland with Gray after all...

She shivered a little when Laura's hand smoothed over her forehead. "Your hands are cold," she gasped in surprise.

Astor watched as Laura pulled up a chair and the little girl's heart sank a little. That was Mom's chair. She sat in it to read bedtime stories to Cody in the original copy of this same room; the one back in Miami. She pushed the thought away, because there was no way Laura would know. Astor highly doubted that even if she did, that Laura would be sitting in that chair out of spite. She just wanted a place to sit that wasn't on the edge of Astor's bed and maybe Cody's bed was too far away for Laura.

The other woman took a necklace out from beneath her shirt and held it out for Astor to see, explaining what it was as Astor looked at it. "It's really pretty," she whispered, all but sitting on her hands not to touch it as Laura paused to crack her neck and nod to herself.

Astor liked stories. Laura's was interesting so far and came with pretty props. Her belly still ached, but she barely noticed it as she listened when Laura went on. The story was sadder the further Laura went on.

Was that really possible? That someone could be dead and---

Yes. Because Spike was dead. Had been for over a hundred years. Actually, come to think of it, his hands had been cold, too. And Laura was prettier than Spike had been when he'd put on his real face, so she had that going for her.

...but then something stirred and Astor looked back at Laura with a thoughtful expression. The Inside Shadow saw an opportunity and Astor's brain hadn't quite caught up with it yet. While she mulled it over, though, she replied. "Well, if you're trying to do things better, maybe that's all he really needs," she suggested.

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