Who: Dani Moonstar, Emma, Nate, and Scott Summers What: dinner and an announcement When: dinnertime Where: their place Rating: PG Status: complete
Emma hummed as she laid out the food that had just been delivered. The local Chinese place was excellent, and Dani and Nate both deserved the night off from cooking. She waited until she had each meal plated before calling everyone to dinner. This was long overdue, and she hoped it would be an enjoyable evening.
The best laid plans....
Scott came in, rubbing at his shoulder as he leaned over to give Emma a kiss. "Whatever happened to those cooking lessons we were taking?"
Nate followed after, freshly showered, and padding in barefoot in slacks and a t-shirt. “Smells good!” He flopped in a seat, settling in and inhaling the scent, which was awesome!
Chinese food always had a way of smelling absolutely fantastic, especially from that local place. It got plenty of business from Dani's house, even before the current roommates. Dani let out a long sigh and hung her bow up, then headed inside.
It was probably telling that the smell made her instantly out of sorts instead of happy. But she smiled at everyone and took a seat, "This is a really nice spread. Thanks!"
Emma took her seat, shrugging at Scott. “Between running on my own, training with you, working full time and harassing people on the Internet I haven’t had time to do any kind of serious cooking. Maybe after the baby’s born.” Or never. Never was also fine. She smiled at Dani and Nate, waiting for everyone to get settled before she took her first bite. “How was everyone’s day?”
Never was probably the most likely option. Even Scott had to surrender to that reason. He sat, and nodded his head at Dani and then Nate. He glanced at his wife, looking a little amused. Emma sounded so domestic it was a little jarring. “I didn’t get the call in I was expecting, which is a good sign.”
“Not getting called in is good, definitely.” Nate glanced down at his watch, which silently shifted to a scan of the local police departments, assuring him all was well, and then back to its digital time display. “Things are nice right now. No boom today. Boom tomorrow.”
"Boom? What boom?" Dani arched a brow and glanced at Nate. Her fork had paused in the air on its way to her mouth, and the food rolled off of it and plopped back onto the plate.
“He was making a joke.” Emma hoped.
Scott looked at his son, the same sentiment on his face. “How about we schedule boom for next week.”
Nate sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s a quote. And tomorrow is variable.” He waved a hand. “It just means there is a boom waiting out there and not to worry about it now.” He chuckled at the rest. “We can worry about it another day.” Or, like him, worry about it now, but also enjoy now.
Whatever worked.
"What if there isn't a boom waiting out there?" Dani thought it was a little silly to sit around waiting for a boom that might not even come. Since Nate was waving it off, she set her fork back down on her plate, and tried to relax a bit.
But of course that was nearly impossible, because no one sitting at the table was the type of person to just forget about any booms that would potentially be happening, "One nice, normal dinner where we didn't have to talk shop. I'd like just one of those."
“Then stop talking shop.” Emma said, a little exasperated. “Tell us about your day or something. I suggested we buy a pharmaceutical company today, there was a mountain of paperwork, my assistant brought in pictures of her pet bird.”
“What kind of bird was it?” Scott asked, zeroing in on that of all things. Paperwork happened, buyouts happened. But pet birds? That was a lot less stressful to talk about. Had to look out for the baby, that’s all.
Nate ignored everything and dug up something he could say. “I’ve been working on improving the image inducer tech, and designing a series of martial arts routines. Thought about opening a dojo, as a sideline to working at Frost.” There, something pleasant.
Pleasant things to say, right. Dani folded her legs up crosswise on her chair and poked at her food with her fork. She decided not to say anything at all for the moment, though she did nod in Emma's direction and then in Nate's. Her own life felt positively mundane in comparison.
“A cockatiel.” Emma noted, in answer to Scott’s question. This was already breaking down and she’d barely gotten three bites in. “Apparently it’s an enormous pain in the ass.”
"She should have gotten a different bird," Scott commented. He was absently amused by how terrible they were at dinner conversation. He knew he was pretty bad himself, and he was only trying to stretch the conversation out further.
“Is it pretty at least?” Nate glanced at Dani, then assayed polite questioning. “How are the kids at the ranch taking the calm after recent events?”
"Going a little stir crazy, depending on who you talk to. Some of them knew Roy pretty well, too, so there's that. Lorna taught a few to crochet and they've actually kept it up, which was surprising," Dani replied, then glanced over at Emma, "Cockatiels are pretty notoriously neurotic. Walking into a pet shop filled with them is like an exercise in how to control your paranoia. At least... well, when you have animal empathy."
At least everyone was talking. “Hopefully things will be quiet for a while, to give them time to recover.”
“Wrex messaged me earlier about some crisis he and Lorna were handling,” Scott said chuckling. “Apparently they had it well in hand.”
Nate nodded. “Good. Hey, I was thinking. Anyone mind if I plant some hyper strawberries out back?” He grinned winningly.
"There's plenty of space for them," Dani replied, with a nod. Then she glanced at Scott, "This is actually a good time, since we're all here. I was wondering if you'd buy the house. I'd give you a fair price for it - less than I paid, probably. The interiors were all redone before I bought it, so you guys wouldn't have too much of a money sink for a few more years."
Emma wasn’t terribly surprised. “Do you have another place to stay?” She did her best to keep her tone of voice level, because this was likely to be a very emotionally charged conversation.
Scott wasn’t too surprised either, but was staring at Dani, eyebrows raised. “I wouldn’t give you anything less than it was worth, and only if you do have a place that’s not the bed of your truck.” He wondered if Wrex would be willing to put her up.
Nate hmmed, then nodded. His basic thought was the same as his parents’ had been. Did she have a place to stay? Rather than repeat it, he smiled. “When do you want to sell it? And do you want to still stay?” He was curious now.
"I don't want to stay, no, and I don't have somewhere else to go, yet. But I'm not worried about that. I can easily buy somewhere cheaper or get an apartment with the money from the sale." Dani pushed her food around her plate a bit, then took a sip from her water, and rolled one of her shoulders, "It's gone up in value since I bought it, I think the price someone's going to mark it at is kind of ridiculous. I don't actually have a mortgage to worry about since I bought it outright when I moved here, so we should agree on a fair price instead of looking at market value completely."
“The market value is a fair price, that’s the point of it.” Emma noted, her tone very benign, despite her irritation. “And I won’t agree to buy it until you have a plan for where you’ll be living afterward.” That was that, as far as she was concerned.
Scott glanced at Emma, nodding his head. "It's like you read my mind." To Dani, he said, "She's right. Figure out what you're going to do before we start making any deals. And you will be paid the fair market value." He pointed his fork at Dani.
Nate nodded and blinked, then nodded. “What they said.” He hmmed, and glanced around. “Why now?”
"Market value is something like... I think it's almost half a million dollars now. Come on, that's just really ridiculous."
Dani made a face at both Scott and Emma, then shook her head and sighed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dashed off a quick text message to Wrex, while trying to answer Nate's question at the same time, "I just can't live here anymore. And i'm tired of the majority of the house feeling like they can't call it their house, when they're the people who've lived here the longest. It's one gigantic lie.”
“This is the Summers house, and I'm like a ghost who got stuck here with the other ghosts. None of the ghosts will leave and the only other way for me to come to terms with it in my head is to imagine the entire place burning to the ground so I can rebuild it without Obi-wan's goddamned face on every single surface."
That last part burst out of her mouth before her mental filter could turn it off, and she sighed, “Yeah. So that.”
Emma sighed. “You have to do what’s best for you, of course. But unless I’m mistaken, you’ve lived here longer than Nate or me. I assume you’ve given this enough thought, so once you have a place we’ll be happy to buy the house. If you need a down payment for an apartment or another house we’ll be happy to help with that as well.”
Sometimes Scott wondered if he really was head of household. It was an interesting dynamic and while in part annoying, it was also a little entertaining. Less pressure. Scott Summers didn’t know how to feel without pressure.
“We’re not letting you go out into the cold, Dani. No matter how you might feel, you’re still family. You gave me a place when I needed one. It’s only fair.”
Nate nodded firmly, then started digging into his meal. He had nothing to add.
"I'm family, but not the kind you live with. Not like this. And taking you in was different, you were single then. This place was like the x-men bachelor pad or something. That was then and this is now, it's just... different. There's too much that's changed," Dani replied, wrinkling her nose a bit, "It's not like I won't stay in touch with you all."
She glanced at Nate, "In fact, I'll probably be less of a bitch in general once I can get some space from the rest of this."
Scott nodded, twisting his fork around with one hand while he listened. "All right. This is probably best for you, no matter how I might feel about it. I can think of a few places you can stay. I know Kitty has room."
Nate nodded. “Well, if I can help, let me know.”
Of course, not accepting anyone's help had gotten her into this mess in the first place, and so had running away. She'd had that conversation with Emma already once, and she didn't know how it was any different now.
"I appreciate that you guys wanted me back, and I appreciate that you want to make sure I'm okay. I really did put some thought into this, but my own feelings around staying here aren't healthy in the slightest. There might be a time in the future where that changes, but it makes more sense to me that you guys would own the place you're staying in... that way you can really feel settled in here."
She leaned against the back of her chair and let out a bit of a sigh of relief, "And yeah, I probably do need help. Getting a place, and getting my head on straight. I don't know how to feel like I belong here anymore."
"The door's always open," Scott replied, after a moment's silence. "When you're gone, I mean. It's always open, both here, and in a generalized 'here'." And he knew he needed to make sure she felt welcome and belonging again. He wasn't sure how to do that.
Nate squinted at her. “I think, in the grand scheme of things, the best start is to get a place of your own, and start on worrying about you, and being you, and figuring that part out. Nothing else can be built or grown until the field is plowed and the foundation is laid.” His voice was soft, sincere, and quiet, and weary, a little. The voice of someone who had laid a lot of foundations.
"Well... you're right... that's very true, Nate." She nodded her head, and tugged on one of her braids, "I think that's the biggest thing. I don't know how to be me or who I am right now. So much of what I was and what my life was involved drinking, and him. Thanks."
She let out a breath, and lifted up some food with her fork, "So, that's settled. When is this house going to have a baby in it already?"
“December.” Emma replied, poking at her food. So much for the family banding together, but at least they had aired out their issues. Some of them, anyway.
Scott felt better, anyway. That they'd talked about this and aired it out. He started digging into his food, finally, and searched for something to say. "You know, I might actually miss the cats."
"Well, if you feel that way about it, I can just keep them here," Dani replied, with a grin.
“NO.” Emma said, firmly. “They don’t sit on his face when he’s trying to sleep.” Truthfully she’d probably miss the cats too, but a full night’s sleep was worth the sadness.
Scott rubbed at his chin to hide his grin. "Take the squirrel too. Uproot the tree if you have to. We'll have to just get our own cats and dogs."
Nate nodded. “Makes more sense, anyway. We have to make the place our own, if we are making it, well, our own.” He grinned. “A fresh start for all.”
It might not have been the dinner that Emma planned, but Dani felt for once in a long time like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She lifted up her glass, "Here's to fresh starts. And to you guys, for putting up with me and my crap."