dǫçţǫŗ şɭęęƥ (shone) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-05-18 16:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: allison hargreeves, ₴ inactive: dan torrance |
WHO: Dan & Allison (with Claire)
WHAT: Returning from the past! Reunions!
WHERE: The mortuary
WHEN: Backdated to May 10th
WARNINGS: Just some of the feels
STATUS: Complete
In his entire existence thus far, Dan never expected he’d be caught in a time spell - but it was apparently the only way to return to where dozens of displaced Outlanders actually belonged, and so he would go along with the plan. He and Sabrina made sure they were with Claire and Roz, and Dan absolutely did not let go of Claire’s hand - he knew she couldn’t wait to see her mom again and, honestly, Dan was chomping at the bit to return home as well. Home. Vallo, in the present, with the mortuary and the bright lights of the city, the fantastical creatures just trying to make it through another day and the greasy burgers and shakes named after the kid he was pretty damn attached to; this life was filled with more twists than a bowl of fusilli pasta, or even a rollercoaster on some kind of corkscrew track, but it happened to be something Dan cherished pretty close to his bruised heart and he wouldn’t give it up so easily. They made it home, that was all he knew. One second he took a breath and the next Claire was clinging to him, her face pressed against his side as time shot along like a bullet from a gun and history was torn down around them - torn down and rebuilt, then torn down and rebuilt again. Until at last Vallo was Vallo - and Dan was in the mortuary, on the ground level. There was the fireplace and the frilled lampshade and the dark furniture - all familiar staples he’d grown fond of. “Allison?” he called, at the same time Claire finally un-velcroed herself from his side and shouted for her mom too. Knowing everyone was coming home that day, Allison had told the other hair dressers at the salon to handle everything on their own that day. She’d be in on Tuesday. It was hard to know something was coming and yet have no idea when it was going to happen, which meant she’d spent most of the morning cleaning the kitchen because she had nothing else to really do. Once that was done, she’d started on various other things before taking a break to eat something. It was just a simple sandwich, but it was at least something. She’d stilled for a moment at the sound of Dan’s voice, shortly followed by Claire’s. It was as if her entire heart stuttered in surprise, but she got up and made her way out into the other room. Her eyes welled up and she ran forward, unapologetically drawing Claire to her first. She knew Dan would understand, so she didn’t worry too much about it. “Hey, baby,” she said, laughing a little as she felt Claire’s hands wiping at her face before starting to cry as well. She stood up, letting Claire rest on her hip (even if she was six, it was fine) and went to put her free arm around Dan. “Hey.” She pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. “You sure took your time.” “Sorry, honey - “ Dan chuckled a little, returning the kiss and adding another - he leaned in and, despite how Claire had octopused to her mom’s side (which was perfectly understandable) he managed to get in some reunion affection of his own, lips catching one or two of those tears that rolled down Allison’s cheeks. “We hurried as quick as we could.” He knew that the situation would fix itself eventually (or someone else, maybe multiple people would step in and fix the situation) but as the days dragged on it was more and more difficult to be patient. Mostly he was just glad that they weren’t stuck in the past for even longer - the bed of hay they’d been sleeping on, the cramped space shared with Claire and Sabrina (for a teenager who coveted space, that must have been torture), it all wasn’t ideal though they did what they could to make the best of it. “Do you two want to catch up a little?” he asked, hand resting on the top of Claire’s head - she still had those poofy buns, and clearly needed her mother’s touch to not look like her stepdad who knew nothing about doing hair was the master at work here. “I can hop in the shower. Give you some time.” Like everyone else who just got magicked back to 2021, he was eager for actual shampoo and cleanliness. There’d probably be a hot water shortage in Vallo. “Is that your way of asking if you can go shower?” She was just happy to be close to him even if she was sure that she’d have wanted to go straight to the shower as well. But she’d missed having him around. Still, she could let him run off for a shower if he wanted one. She had a six year old that would probably want a bath as well. She looked at Claire and then back at Dan. “Maybe you can go ahead and get your shower and I’ll get Claire cleaned up and in a new outfit and we can meet back up after the fact?” She looked at Claire, whose eyes had widened slightly as she nodded. “Mommy, I had to dump water to clean myself.” Allison laughed. “Well, hopefully we’ll never have to worry about that again.” It was true - bathing in ancient Vallo was nowhere close to what most of them were used to. Dragging a bucket filled with water (and cold water at that) and using it to freshen up wasn’t exactly as soothing as standing under a hot spray of water. Luckily they’d managed to find soap, given the fact that the covens produced all sorts of wares available for purchase - but it wasn’t overly perfumed and nothing like a perfectly formed bar you’d find at a modern store. “Sure, sounds good. I’ll be in the kitchen when you need me,” Dan huffed a laugh, giving Allison another kiss before managing to separate himself so he could head upstairs and find a change of clothes - that was sorely needed. He grabbed jeans and a comfy t-shirt from his dresser, and when he got into the shower it felt like a warm, cozy water hug. It awakened his skin and definitely made him feel less dirty - granted, he was used to dirt. And he’d been in worse states, but that was a whole other story. Once he was dressed he headed back downstairs, planning to put on a pot of coffee because that was something he’d missed too. He was tired, sure, but he’d still sleep just fine even after drinking one measly cup of the dark brew. Allison took Claire to one of the other bathrooms, setting up so she could bathe and feel like she was a little less like a girl that had just spent over a week in the past. Once she was done, she put product in her hair and dried it before plaiting it. Claire picked out her outfit and put on one of the dresses Klaus got her the first time he’d been around. Once they were done, Claire followed Allison down the stairs and grabbed onto her hand. “Feeling better,” she asked as she walked through the door into the kitchen. She picked Claire up to sit her in one of the chairs. She was going to get her some snacks to focus on for a bit. She’d gotten some more cheese snacks with the cut up fruit. She set her up with some milk before going over to Dan. “Thank you for keeping her safe.” She kept her voice mostly soft, but she could tell by Claire’s expression she still heard her. “And for coming back safely.” She was quiet for a moment. “I heard there was a dragon. Was it bad?” Dan glanced over his shoulder as Allison came into the kitchen with Claire, a fond grin crossing his features while he reached for the coffee mugs. Old reliable, the hospital gift shop mug he’d gotten when he first started working in Vallo - the heart with an EKG line, and even though it was a small thing it was nice to have that as a constant. “Much better hair, Clairebear,” he told the girl, who let out a giggle because they both knew Dan sucked at that aspect. It just needed that mom touch. While Claire drank her milk and went to town on that snack, Dan turned toward Allison and abandoned the coffee post to slide his arms around her and squeeze her to him gently. “You don’t have to thank me for that - I love you both,” he said, rough emotion there in his voice. Like sandpaper that ran across the timelines which separated them - and man, he was glad to be back now. “The dragon honestly wasn’t as bad as, say, the murder turkeys,” he added with dry amusement. He wasn’t sure why, but after that it just seemed like so many people fucked themselves up and the clinic was ridiculously overrun; some people even needed the hospital straight off. For those and the Vultures too. “It just seemed bad because we didn’t have modern medicine, but I worked with what I had and helped patch people up.” It wasn’t the worst hairstyle Allison had seen. She remembered trying to learn what to do with her own hair in the beginning because they didn’t have anyone else to help them with it until they were four and Grace became a part of their family. Then she had someone who could help her, but that was because of the android part of things. She knew a good amount of things to make sure they were looked after and later to be able to save them when they were injured. Allison let herself relax against Dan, letting her head rest on his shoulder. “I’m still going to do it,” she said quietly. “Because I’m glad you did.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “And I’m glad that the dragon wasn’t as bad as the murder turkeys...even if it doesn’t fully make sense that it wasn’t. I thought dragons would be more dangerous. But good job helping everyone, hunny.” Claire looked over just to add, “THEY SAID IT WAS HUUUUUUGE” to the conversation. “Mom, can we get a pet dragon?” Allison rolled her eyes. “No. We cannot have any more pets. We have too many pets and a dragon might eat them all.” Claire frowned at that. “Ooooookay. But only cause the cats shouldn’t be eaten.” During the whole dragon debacle, Claire had been with Katherine and Nadia - Dan was fine with taking her around with him to help villagers with simple mundane medical ailments, but bringing her into danger like that was not happening. He was glad she at least had a friend there, someone to rely on while they were all stuck in the past. “It was huge,” he confirmed with a laugh. He’d been a ways away, in a sectioned off area where the injured were brought but it was still hard to miss a creature like that - gigantic and mesmerizing all at once. Almost a shame those who battled it had to kill it, but things would have been much worse if they hadn’t. “Gonna have to agree about the pet dragon though - all our current pets would be tasty snacks and plus, we don’t have a big enough bed for a dragon to sleep in. Or a big enough toothbrush to brush its teeth,” he pointed out, pouring coffee into two mugs - one for him, one for Allison. Plus he already knew Allison was twitchy about the amount of animals at the mortuary, between the housecats and the various familiars. They were cute, sure, but it was still a lot. That first sip of coffee tasted like the best thing in the world. “Guess we try to go back to normal now?” he guessed. That was what they always seemed to do, after a bout of Vallo weirdness. There were, admittedly, quite a lot of animals in one house. At least on Azzie really came in and bothered them all that much when they were in their rooms, but most of them were around when they were in the general house. It wasn’t so much that she really minded them, but the general noise level in the house was even more than the Umbrella Academy. Claire looked generally displeased about the lack of dragon, but otherwise, made no complaint. “We almost always end up needing to go back to normal. But I’m not sorry if you have to put up with me checking in extra.” Not to mention the amount of personal space invading she was likely to be prone to. She hadn’t realized how used to having him around until she had to sleep in the bed alone. Sometimes Azzie came and slept on Dan’s pillow, but most of the time, she was alone and she didn’t sleep well. Part of that was the stress of everything, but some of it was a level of weirdness, knowing she was by herself. “You guys get a day off? Or is it back to work as usual?” “Back to work as usual,” Dan confirmed - and, really, what the hell else could he do? Vallo, the world, life never gave anyone a break - they all stumbled from one disaster to the next (whether it was more personal or something that seemed to affect the island at large), people got themselves hurt badly and used whatever magical means necessary to heal up and then repeat the cycle for the next big monster that appeared from the ether. To say that it was frustrating as fuck was a vast understatement. Sometimes he felt like he was just spinning his wheels in the dirt, everytime the number of clinic patients surged up simply because people did not know how to look after themselves, but there were a lot of good things about this particular afterlife as well. One of them was right in front of him. He set down his mug and wrapped his arms snugly around Allison again, nose buried in her hair. Her shampoo or product, whatever it was, smelled like coconut and it was also the best thing - he loved her so much, everytime he thought his heart was full he just found new things to add. To stuff in there. Because love was everything all at once. “Maybe we can get a nap in before I have to go anywhere though.” Allison sighed. She expected it because most people just went back to work, but she guessed she couldn’t keep him at the same time if there were injured people. It was just hard sometimes to know the medical people almost never got a break from their work. But she was immensely proud of Dan for all of his hardwork and the fact that he had this stupidly big heart that just wanted to help people. She loved that about him. “I think a nap does sound good.” She looked over at Claire. “You should go take a nap, too, Claire. I don’t think you’ll have school today, but you might as well get some rest and then come with me to work later. You can help escort people to the Unicorn chair.” Claire nodded. “Okay, Mommy.” Helping escort people to the infamous unicorn chair was definitely an important job. Dan couldn’t help but grin at that a little - Claire hadn’t liked being separated from her mom, and being stuck in a completely different era, but she got through it and was back now. Resilient too, in the way kids were - people in general tended to be that way, and it was something he admired about most. Sometimes people could be a little too resilient, and just didn’t allow themselves to feel anything, but that was another bag of worms. He was proud of her, was the point. “Good, group nap,” he decided. “I think that’s just what the doctor ordered.” He’d go back to work once he’d rested a little (maybe not even go back until tomorrow) and he’d be okay. Just give him his family, his coffee, and a decent sleep cycle and the rest? He’d figure it out from there. |