Re: Marvel FDNY: Clem & Declan
Square dances and Skip To My Lou, Declan could have them for his ownself. Because Clem turned when she heard her name, and there wasn't a hint of formality in her response to the greeting. Maybe it was years away from home and her momma's need for everything to be like a movie, or maybe it was this big old brick house and the menfolk that didn't give a damn she was a woman unless it came time to hit on her some. Maybe it was just her daddy, dead on that bed and his face clear gone, but she hopped off the arm of that couch and flung herself at her brother, a running jump and not one damn bit of concern. Arms around his shoulders and legs around his waist, and knowing he would be able to catch her with them big strong arms of his. Like it was the summer of their youth, when she'd come barreling down the stairs of that country house demanding adoring.
The men on the couch hooted and hollered, and Clem didn't give a good damn. Just like she didn't give a good damn that him being there meant she'd never get to be "Murphy," because these men were sexist pigs, god bless every last damn heroic one. She'd been fighting off "Blondie," for 72-hours, and that battle was long damn lost now.
She hadn't seen Declan in years, not since summers in that big old country house, and them the only two children not born on the right side of that expensive blanket. Clem's momma had been around, because she always came to live opulent summers, even if it made the real Ms. Murphy want to spit through them real proper teeth of hers. But Declan's momma, she hadn't ever been nowhere, and Clem had always thought he was lucky some for her absence.
But here he was, all grown and dressed in blue, pretty as a summer day, and she'd always had a soft spot for him. Jude, he'd been something acquired here, and Alexander was war on her tongue, and she'd never cottoned to the girls, and they'd never cottoned to her. But Declan, Declan was the same as her some, born dirty, and that mattered when she'd been small with her daddy looking too long at her constant.
"What the hell are you doing here, sugar?" she asked, and the men on the couch groaned good-natured about long legs and them being stuck with video games.