Morningstar Manor

Yet another evening delayed by a hospital visit. After Lara's derby bout, Stone drove her to the hospital. She was pretty sure her wrist wasn't broken, but the on-call medical people at the game told her she should get it checked out anyway.

"This is gonna take forever," she sighed once they were in the waiting room.

He bought a large tray into the bedroom, fully stacked with coffee, juice, breakfast, and what a breakfast. Spencer had woken up with the urge to cook, so there was bacon, pancakes, maple syrup, scrambled eggs, and some hash browns, mushrooms, baked beans, and tomatoes. He set the tray down on the dresser, rather than disturb the bed. "Morning sweetness, want some breakfast?"

He settled on the bed next to Roxy, "I made you bacon," he said with a grin, "if you'd like to wake up and eat?"

Andras was out early, near dawn, doing some yoga positions before sitting down to meditate for a bit.

This sort of thing made you nice and bendy.

Might come in handy.

Some day.

Tristan had narrowed down his stack of applications based off yesterdays interviews. Anastasia had helped him a lot, pointing out how some of the girls reacted snobbishly to the others and some flaws Tristan hadn't seen. It was probably that artist's eye of hers...

He sat in the Mocha, at a table by the windows, with head shot photos sorted into stacks. It wasn't a hard sorting system for this bit. The keep these sort would be harder. He picked up his coffee and procrastinated a little longer.

Ang was dishing up at just gone one, when the knock came at the door. Inwardly she breathed a sigh of relief, Emma hadn't forgotten. Then she continued to dish up, trusting Alec would open the door. Then came the moments of confusion, where everyone, and two dogs, seemed to be in the kitchen and talking at once. At least, until Gavin was settled into his seat, and everyone else was sat down, cutlery in hand and busy eating.

Only then did Ang really smile, her family around her, a good meal on the table, and for a moment, all was right in the world. "So, did college finish alright Emma? Get the grades you wanted?"

Emma looked up, and swallowed her mouthful, "Mmm, oh yes, straight A's across the board. A Plus in some classes." She grinned, then chuckled, "Does that pass muster with you guys? Or do I have to try harder next year? If it helps, my drawing professor thinks I can do better, but she could only give me an A plus, merits and distinctions come later? My math tutor was not so impressed, I only got an A in that."

"Niles" she said, a lisp made more prominent by the lack of her two front teeth. "Your mommy told me to stay away, but I wanted to come make sure you were better."
He'd been sick, locked up in his room. One look down his body showed legs that were skinny with knobby knees under the blanket, weak arms, a small chest. He was a young boy again, and the little girl sitting before him was his Julia. She was tiny in her pink dress and her shiny blonde ringlets, almost as pretty as a porcelain doll until she smiled and showed her missing teeth. Then, she was just another girl. Just his friend. The only friend he had. 
"I'll be fine, Julia," he said in his most adult voice. They would both get in trouble if she got caught in here. He always had to be the grown up around her. "Now leave before you get us both in trouble."
"But Niles, you always take care of me. What will I do if you don't get better? I had to come and see!"
Tears appeared in her big, blue eyes as she moved and wrapped her tiny arms around his neck. This close she smelled like fabric softener and the cherry Kool-Aid that he'd seen on the neck of her dress. He didn't get hugged often, only by Julia. She'd been the one to teach him how and told him it was what you did with people you liked. Sometimes he thought that Julia was the only person in the world he could like. So, he wrapped his arms around her just the way she'd shown him, and squeezed. 
"I'll always be around to take care of you. Don't worry."

Niles sat up in bed, something stuck in his throat, a dead weight on his chest. He shuddered, running his hands over his face. It was too dark in there.  Too quiet. He turned on the light and the tv, but he could still hear her voice in his head.
He caught sight of a slip of paper on the table beside his bed and froze. Elspeth Vale. She'd told him to call her, given him her phone number.
He didn't think, just grabbed up his phone and dialed.