Who: Savannah, Olivia, and Maizie Where: the Oval Office What: the birthday dinner for Savannah's birthday goes awry When: 11/2/18, starting around 7PM
With all the things that had happened lately, all the shit that had been hitting the fan, it would probably have been understandable if Savannah’s birthday had kind of gotten swept under the rug. Most people hardly celebrated such things to begin with, anymore. It was easy to ignore the march of time because so little about their situation changed, it seemed, except to get worse when it was least expected. Like when you’d finally made up with your best friend after things had gotten hella awkward between you, when you’d finally both gotten on the same page about the fact that you were more than friends, only to have that new normal shattered by --
Things between her and Liv were just a little tense, that was all, especially after their disagreement the night before. It seemed like outbursts of irritation and resentment were becoming more common from Liv since the mugging, and Maizie never knew what would set the next one off. She remembered, though, how Dad had been too angry to even come home after what he’d been through. It was totally normal. Liv was struggling, and Maizie was trying to be understanding, but it felt like she was failing spectacularly more often than not.
Around and around her thoughts spiraled as she set up the sitting area for dinner. The food was nothing special, of course, though Maizie had managed to get her hands on an honest-to-god chocolate snack cake to substitute for a birthday cake. And she’d meant to decorate more, but it was kind of a miracle that even the one garland of paper hearts had gotten finished. It wasn’t anywhere near what Maizie had been hoping to pull together for Savannah’s first birthday without Dad, but it was the best she could do. And she was determined to staple on a smile and make it work.
Which was why she didn’t turn to Liv after the garland was hung, to ask if she thought it was straight, even though her friend lifted her eyes up to appraise the garland and waited expectantly to be asked for her opinion, her mouth falling into a slight frown when Maizie didn't say anything. That was one of those things she was pretty sure would only make Liv snap at her. And, yeah, it felt cruel to be up and doing things that her friend wasn’t capable of, but what else she could do? Life had to go on. That was one of those hard lessons she'd learned over the summer. The world didn't stop for you.
Taking a few steps back, Maizie looked up at the meager decorations and gave a determined nod. It looked okay to her. 'Okay' would have to suffice.
Even if she was feeling more down than celebratory, Savannah couldn’t help but smile as she entered the Oval Office, eyes landing on the heart garland Maizie had hung. “Hi girls. Something smells good in here,” she said, taking the few steps over to her bedroom to put her shoes away before joining Maizie and Liv in the common area.
Savannah hadn’t done nearly enough work that day and had skipped out of the LBJ entirely for a while to have lunch with Cal, but she was pretty sure that was allowed because it was her birthday. She didn’t exactly feel like celebrating. Gray’s absence felt bigger than ever on a day like today, but as they said: the show must go on.
“It’s your birthday dinner!” Maizie replied, her bright tone only slightly forced to drive away the last of the stilted silence that had hung in the Oval Office. When Savannah approached, she gave her a tight hug, even though it had only been hours since they’d seen each other. It was relief, maybe. The idea that she might secretly be even a little bit glad not to be alone with Liv anymore made guilt buzz through her.
"Hey Savannah," Olivia said, aiming a genuine -- if small -- smile in the woman's direction. She was still on Maizie's bed, after all, and she would need to get to the center of the Oval Office in order for them to proceed with dinner. But it was Savannah's birthday, and she really wanted to try and make it okay after the fight she and Maizie had the night before and the residual tension that was still palpable.
She shot a glare at the crutches next to the bed, then started to get up, reaching for one and then the other once she was fully upright. Maizie watched, biting her lip, but she didn’t speak or go offer to help. After a moment, she looked away. As much as Olivia hated them seeing her like this, though, she couldn't skip out and stay back on their side of the room. So she began the long journey towards the family area, fully convinced they were both watching her all the while, and sat herself down heavily on her favorite cushion. There was a stubborn look on her face, almost as though she were daring them to comment on her situation. "Happy birthday again."
No comments came from Maizie. Instead, she tugged Savannah by the hand over to the table, gesturing for her to take a seat across from Liv. “Make yourself comfortable. Sorry it’s not anything more special, but we’ll all just Peter Pan it and dream up a more fitting feast.” It had been years since she’d last seen Hook, but the picture of the Lost Boys imagining an entire spread had been something that she’d often remembered, usually when faced with another meal made from dried or pre-packaged food like they the one they were having tonight. The pretty typical post-apocalyptic spam and rice casserole, with rehydrated corn to spice things up, wasn’t on anyone’s list of most-wished-for dishes. Still, they couldn’t really complain. Food was food.
True to Maizie’s words, the dinner wasn’t much more extravagant than the normal fanfare around LBJ, but Savannah still appreciated the effort put towards making her birthday special. They chatted easily enough once the meal had started, though Savannah was definitely picking up on some tension between Maizie and Olivia. Truth be told, ever since Olivia’s ankle was broken by those Los Nahuales bastards, she’d been in a perpetual foul mood. It wasn’t as if Olivia didn’t have reason to be upset, but her negativity bleeding into her every word was becoming an exercise of patience.
A few minutes later, some kind of ruckus was happening off to the side, near Maizie and Olivia's side of the office. But by the time the three of them had looked over, Finn was chasing Sven in a circle before the cat outsmarted him and slipped out through the door that was just slightly cracked open.
“Finn!” Savannah chastised the dog, not knowing what had gotten into him so suddenly. Usually Sven and Finn got along just fine and even cuddled together sometimes when they slept.
Olivia's eyes were wide, a carryover from their catching the tail end of the fight between the two Oval Office pets. "Why would you just sit here and let him do that?" she blurted out as a frown etched itself deeply onto her lips. Maizie winced at the words. "Finn's like, five times the size of him. It's not fair." But as she talked, she could hear how her voice was cracking. She hated it. Her hand reached out for something, anything, and found the edge of the table. "You can't just let him do that when Sven can't even defend himself."
She turned, tilting her head as she looked over at Maizie expectantly. "Can you go get him? And like, bring the dog out while you're at it?"
Maizie shook her head, shoulders slumping as a sinking feeling washed over her. Leaving the Oval Office to search for Sven -- which she knew from experience was going to be a wild goose chase -- wasn’t something she really wanted to do in the middle of their celebration. She lay her fork down anyway, and picked her napkin up from her lap so it wouldn’t drop when she stood. “I can look, but Sven’s probably hiding by now. Can it wait until after?”
As far as putting Finn out … Maizie hated that Liv had even asked her to do it with Savannah sitting right there. She purposefully didn’t glance across the table, and she didn’t address that part of Liv’s request either. Maybe if she just ignored it, neither of them would mention it again.
Savannah watched the exchange between Maizie and Olivia, her irritation growing until finally she snapped, “Maizie sit down and Olivia, Finn isn’t going anywhere. This is my home and Finn is my dog, so he stays.” Her patience for Olivia had been wearing thin over the past several days, her behavior grating on her until finally she just couldn’t handle it anymore. It was her birthday and Maizie had clearly tried to do something nice for it but the whole thing was being overcast by Liv’s attitude.
Her day had already been tough enough, thoughts of Gray and all the weight on her shoulders so heavy to bear, so she’d been looking forward to a relaxing evening with the girls and to have an escape from it all. What she hadn’t wanted was more stress. Olivia wasn’t even behaving that badly -- not in comparison to the tantrum she’d had the about board games and books the night before -- but it was still too much for her on that particular day.
Liv’s mouth opened as though she were about to respond right away, but something -- her conscience, maybe, or her common sense -- got in the way. Whatever words she could've managed felt like they were caught in her throat as Savannah continued on and instead of speaking up just then, she simply closed her mouth and bit down on her lip hard.
“Olivia, I get it that you’re goin’ through something rough and I really am sorry but do you think draggin’ everyone else down with you is gonna help? You keep this up and you’re gonna be so unbearable to be around and then who’s gonna go fetch your cat when he runs away because he can’t stand being around you either?” Savannah continued, her temper getting the best of her and her mouth running wild, stoking Olivia's own temper and pushing it past the burning point.
"You're not sorry at all!" Olivia's voice was pitched up higher than she wanted it -- it sounded whiny and upset -- but it was almost as though she'd lost control of herself, just like all the other outbursts she'd had over the last couple of days that she could barely even register. They both expected her to just go back to normal, but now she was this new person wound up tight with a simmering anger that was always threatening to boil over. She'd show them. "And if you don't want me around anymore, if you can't stand being around me now that I'm like this -- which is fine by me, whatever -- then just say so, Savannah!"
Savannah’s words had frozen Maizie in place as she began rising from the table, stuck in a position of half-up and half-down, with one knee beneath her like she was in the process of proposing. But it was Liv’s reply that brought her back down onto her cushion, a look of misery crossing her face. So much for her idea of a relaxing dinner to celebrate Savannah’s birthday. What had been nice, if strained, was turning into an argument that grew rapidly more heated with each passing moment. She knew how this was going to go, having seen the the same pattern over and over in the preceding days.
“Please don't do this.” Maizie didn't know which woman she was speaking to with her plea. Both maybe. But even if everyone stopped speaking right now, the damage was done and the emotions were loose. They'd just stew in their own bitterness and fury for the rest of the night. So she gave up on trying to hold back this flood, gritting her teeth and balling her hands into fists in her lap as words continued to fly.
“This is not the way you are, it’s just the way you are right now because no one has told you to knock it off,” Savannah said, ignoring Maizie’s words, her frustration continuing to grow. “I don’t want you leave but if this is how you’re gonna treat the people who are tryin’ to help you, then maybe you should go. We don’t deserve to be your punchin’ bag just because you’re hurtin’ inside. You think I don’t know what that’s like?” And there it was -- the big elephant in the room. It really wasn’t fair to compare the pain they’d experienced but Maizie and Savannah lost Gray that summer and somehow they’d found the will to carry on. How dare Olivia act like her world was ending when all she had was a broken ankle?
Olivia fixed Savannah with a sharp, pointed glare, defiant still even in the face of the subject that they never, ever talked about. "Too bad the Dog Park got blown up," she shot back, even though she'd been just as upset as the others when she'd found out. Even though she owed Rodeo her life. Beside her, Maizie’s eyes widened in horror. "Maybe it'd be better if I just--"
“Do you really want to finish that sentence?” Savannah interjected, cutting Olivia off before she could say something that would take this night from bad to worse. Looking at Liv, her expression clearly shifted from simply irritated to downright furious. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she opened her mouth to say more but ironically was interrupted by her phone ringing. Never knowing what kind of emergency would be on the other end, she pushed away from the table and stood up to retrieve her phone.
“I need to take this,” she said, her voice clipped, before turning to walk out of the Oval Office. Shooting a brief look back at Maizie and Olivia, she just shook her head slightly before responding, “No, it’s okay. Didn’t think I was going to hear from you today. Thanks for calling.”
Watching Savannah go, Maizie felt completely wretched. As far as birthday celebrations went, this was a wreck, and right then she couldn't even bring herself to look over at Liv. An awkward silence lapsed between them, each girl spiraling into her own thoughts.
Biting at her lower lip as Pete spoke, Savannah nodded slightly, though she realized he couldn’t see her, and said, “It’s okay, I’m just glad you called at all. Today’s been--” she paused slightly, “Kind of turned into a mess actually, but it’s okay I guess. Birthdays are just another day, right?”
Fiddling with a piece of hair as she listened to Pete talk, she slowly began pacing down the hallway leading to the Oval Office, then responded, “I guess I could have made a bigger deal about it but--” she hesitated. Talking about Gray to Pete didn't seem right, not when she had essentially broken up with him to be with Gray. Instead she cleared her throat before continuing, “Thanks though. Was your day okay? What were you busy with? Is everyone okay?” He knew about her connection to the Hellhounds and had seen her there in the flesh after the Dog Park got bombed. She just hoped nothing more had happened today.
Needlessly nodding again at Pete’s words, she let out a short ‘hummm,’ grateful that he’d only been busy with normal hospital business. At his question about her plans for the evening, she paused a moment before asking, “Can I come over?”
After getting an okay from Pete, she moved back into the Oval Office and went straight to her room, collecting a pair of shoes and a jacket. She didn’t have long before the curfew that would lock her inside LBJ for the night so she paused just briefly to tell Maizie that she was going to the hospital and that she’d be back tomorrow. Maizie only nodded, still mute in the aftermath of the argument. Without another word, she turned to leave, letting the door close a little harder than necessary on her way out.