Re: Music Store: Daniel & Claire
It would have eased Daniel's mind to know that Claire could sense him such a long way off, because he trusted her and because no one else in his acquaintance really seemed to appreciate how dangerous he could be, how he could go from petty and languid to teeth and death in a snap of a very thin thread. Louis seemed only to realize it when it was too late, and Sparrow seemed to accept it as part of what was expected of her. Perhaps Destiny was different. Destiny had much to lose and reason to be cautious.
Daniel was terrified that Sam would find out, and when Sam found out, Cris would find out, and he would never let Sam or the baby near them again. If he stayed inside, it minimized the likelihood of a slip or a mistake. She could visit him here. She wasn't waiting, Daniel reassured himself. He wasn't letting anyone down, and surprising no one. He could stay here. Once he ascertained the identity of the visitor--forgetting entirely a conversation that had just ended only an hour before, it seemed--he bent down to pick up the cat by the scruff of the neck so she couldn't escape out into the cold night when he opened the door wide, which he did a moment later. The cat was like a focused flash frozen in time, so white was her fur against the unremarkable shadow of Daniel's gray shirt and faded slacks. He couldn't have picked a set of garments or colors more depressing or less suited to the pallor that was natural to his kind. Neither of them looked much like what they were, then.
He gave her a relieved smile. "Good evening, Isabella." His nose twitched as he tried to detect any lingering trace of blood or antiseptic, any suggestion that she was still injured. Once she was inside he shut the door behind her, veiling them both in the heavy darkness, as he had not bothered to turn a light on in the lower floor. The square of light at the top of the stairs that led to Daniel's apartment was then the only illumination, glinting off the rusted surfaces of the old license plates Harper had affixed to the available surface, casting long shadows down the rows of records and their shelving. Daniel had not done a thing to the lower floor except lock the door, and the container of sound seemed sad and abandoned in the quiet of the night.
Daniel set the cat on the floor and put an arm out in her direction, not thinking and in the Italian way of greeting, since the words came so readily to his lips. He forgot what she had said about touching, as she always did. Daniel's fears were hardly ever external, and he forgot to remember dangers to himself. "You came." He was obviously pleased. The white cat, not so much. She seemed uncertain what to do about the visitor, running away and then slinking back.