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Tweak says, "King of Babylon"

Darcy Rhone is a total MILF (total_milf) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2011-08-18 20:26:00

Entry tags:

darcy rhone, phoebe halliwell

WHO: Darcy Rhone and OTA
WHAT: Trying to find an amulet and maybe running into someone in person for the first time since arriving?
WHERE: First floor of the apartment complex in Lawrence
WHEN: Present day, early evening.

It had taken a few days for Darcy to accept that she really wasn't going to be going home any time soon. It took another to accept that she was going to be having her babies in some po-dunk town all alone and that Ethan was neither going to be able to support her through the pregnancy nor be there for the birth to hold her hand. Finally, Darcy had decided that she was going to have to try to make the best of it and roll with the punches as best she could. Everybody kept saying that she wouldn't be alone having these babies, but she didn't believe them. Part of her was pretty sure that the babies weren't the reason she was so exhausted and that it was just the stress and fear of the idea of having them at all, never mind all by herself in a strange place surrounded by a bunch of people she'd never met in person.

The most that Darcy had bothered to leave her room was to go to the nearest gas station for ice cream or junk food because it was the only thing she was craving and her appetite was long gone, so it was the cheapest and fastest way to force herself to eat for the benefit of her unborn children. So, when the one guy, Connor, had recommended she get an amulet to ward off demon possession — of all things — she wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of having yet another reason to force herself out of bed and out of her room. But, she decided she sort of didn't have a choice. Everything was so crazy around here, no one had given her any real reason to doubt the validity of his suggestion and the last thing she wanted was to be the next pea-soup spouting, head-spinning, foul-mouthed, foreign-tongued freak of nature.

So, with a lot of moping to herself and a little bit of effort, Darcy got out of bed, showered — bemoaning the fact that she could no longer see anything more than the very tip of her big toe while looking down — and headed out of her room and down the elevator to the first floor.

"Amulets, amulets..." she murmured to herself, walking slowly around and trying to take in the surroundings for the first time, since she hadn't bothered any other time. If she had, she might have noticed the amulets the first five or six times she'd left her room and the building. "If I were a bunch of amulets...where would I want to chill?" she wondered quietly to herself, tapping her fingers gingerly against her swollen stomach.

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powerofpheebs
2011-08-20 02:00 am UTC (link)

Phoebe hadn't counted on how much more difficult it would be writing advice and words of wisdom to the people of their strange little world than it was back home. Back home, the worst problems people had were not enough money to surprise a girlfriend or awkward love squares. Here, though? Here people were upset over demons and ghosts and timelines gone awry. And though the letters were anonymous, she could easily see people she knew or had talked to in them. It made it hard. Very hard.

She needed a breather. She was nearly done with the current submissions, but her head was spinning from the troubles of Lawrence. For the first time in a long time she was glad her empathy had been taken. It wouldn't been nearly impossible to tune out as much suffering as was surrounding her every day by then.

So she was heading out. Somewhere in the city, maybe. A Haagen Daaz if she could find it, or a generic Kansas-based ice cream place if she couldn't. Just some way to clear her head.

But then she saw the woman. She was talking to herself, and Phoebe didn't have to be an empath any longer to pick up on what she was saying. "They're off this hallway here," she interrupted, then blushed a little. "I mean, sorry to butt in. You just sounded lost is all."

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total_milf
2011-08-24 01:14 am UTC (link)

The sound of another person's voice startled Darcy a little. She hadn't seen or heard anyone approaching since she'd been so focused on trying to find the stupid amulet things. With a tiny gasp and then a sigh of relief upon turning to the voice, Darcy's hand moved from her stomach to her chest. "Jesus," she breathed with a sheepish and airy sort of chuckle. "You scared me."

Letting out a soft sigh, Darcy nodded assent. "Totally lost," she admitted and gave a weak smile as a thank you for the directions. "Around here?" she asked, pointing to clarify as she made a few slow steps in that direction; a subtle invite for the woman to come along should she want to. Then, she stopped. "God, where are my manners?" she complained, "I'm sorry. I'm Darcy," she offered, extending a hand to shake.

A quick, subconscious reading of the comfortable body language on the woman gave Darcy the vibe that she wouldn't make a very good Rachel/Claire replacement, but there was nothing wrong with making a few friends in this place, in person for a change. She had heard that this place was stressful at best, so she figured there was no harm in at least making acquaintances. "I'm pretty new," she added as an after-thought, to explain why she had no idea where she was supposed to be going.

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powerofpheebs
2011-08-24 04:29 am UTC (link)

For the briefest of instances, Phoebe couldn't help but glance at the woman's stomach. Ever so slightly distended. Not so big that she couldn't convince people she'd just put on some weight if she wanted to. Not if she was wearing the right clothes anyway. But Phoebe had seen her sister through two pregnancies. And she herself had been pregnant, though she didn't know if the strange, demon, heir-to-the-source child counted when comparing against normal pregnancies. But the part of her that so desperately wanted a baby, the little girl in her vision with the button nose and the big dark eyes, that part of her couldn't write off the woman's obvious condition.

Before Darcy could really notice her staring, though, Phoebe tore her eyes away and smiled, reaching out to take the offered hand. "Phoebe Halliwell, it's nice to meet you." She'd been about to ask how long Darcy had been there when she admitted to being new. Nodding, she gave a reassuring smile and started down the hall towards the storage room where Piper had pulled a spare amulet from the box. "Come on, then. We should get you settled."

"The amulets aren't like anything I've dealt with back home," she began, then paused, shaking her head. "No, that's not entirely true. I deal with similar things, but nothing that can actually block a demon. Wish we'd had them, but..." Then she paused again. It was just so strange being able to talk openly to anyone about what they were. Then again, she lived near comic book characters and Jedi. At that point, why bother keeping a secret? Instead, she just smiled and shrugged. "Just different, is all."

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total_milf
2011-08-27 03:09 am UTC (link)

So lost in her own little, self-absorbed need right then, Darcy only noticed a brief flicker of Phoebe's eyes from her stomach to her face again and in response, Darcy blushed just slightly. "Just what I need right now, right?" she asked, brushing a hand over her baby bump again. God, it was getting bigger every freaking day, it seemed like...

"Nice to meet you, too, Phoebe," she replied. "Thanks a million. Everybody keeps offering up words of wisdom but you're the first person I've met, you know. You're the first legit one, anyway, if that makes sense? Like, in person. I figure it only kind of counts when it's over the computer. So impersonal," she went on with a grateful smile.

As they moved together down one of the halls, Darcy listened, arching a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "So, you're like...familiar with this stuff?" she asked. "It's all foreign to me. I never read the Bible and I never really paid much attention in church," she admitted. "I stopped going as soon as I finished the sacraments and got old enough to tell my parents no," she went on.

A gentle and not-meant-to-be-condescending roll of her eyes later, Darcy agreed. "Different. That's one way to put it," she added with a small smirk. "I'm from Manhattan and I came from London...I'm used to glitz and glamor, then pubs and castles," she rambled. "All of this stuff is a little too...weird for me, still. But, I'm getting there, I guess. I'm at least not calling people nutcases anymore," she finished sheepishly.

Then, Darcy backtracked a little. "So, these things make it so that we can't be possessed, right? What about outright physical harm...? What's the protection for that?"

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powerofpheebs
2011-08-29 06:21 am UTC (link)

Phoebe couldn't help grinning. No, she didn't understand why the seal pulled through certain people. People who had no understanding of wars or fighting or the supernatural. She and her sisters and Mel? They made some sense, at least. Even if the demons were different here, at least they knew they existed. The witches from other places, they were familiar with magic and the like. But people like Darcy? The girl read like a New York socialite. What was she even doing there? But who was she to question a Biblical seal?

With a slow release of breath, Phoebe turned to face the other woman head on. May as well come out with it. Her story was no more weird than half the ones here. "I'm a witch," she admitted, cocking one shoulder in a half shrug. "Married a demon once, got turned into a mermaid and a genie, among other things. Even died a few times. Yeah, you could say I'm used to it." She gave a little laugh, then, as if revealing the family secret was something she did every day. In actuality, she was still getting used to being able to talk about it so openly.

"I'm from San Francisco. Cable cars, the bridge, the works. And yet you can still fit all of this in. And my sister's on a roadtrip now. It's all still there. You just have to actually look for it." After all, it wasn't like the residents of Lawrence knew what was going on right under their noses.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Phoebe simply smiled again and found the box containing the amulets. Reaching in, she handed one to Darcy. "Yep, possession protection. Wear it at all times, under your clothes. You can also fight them off with holy water and you can make them reveal themselves by saying 'christo'." Physical harm? Oh, that she could handle. "The building is protected. Spells and charms, for one, and apparently, a high scale security system, too. One good thing about being surrounded by witches and geniuses, right?" Smirking just a little, Phoebe tucked her hair behind her ears and laughed. "The security system's also nice to keep out random bad guys. There's more than just demons out there, obviously."

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total_milf
2011-08-29 06:09 pm UTC (link)

Phoebe's casual response of I'm a witch took Darcy a little off-guard at first, but it only managed to worsen as the other woman went on. Sweet Jesus, Darcy thought, I will never, ever get used to this, will I? For lack of anything constructive at all to say — in fact, for lack of any speech at all right then — Darcy arched her eyebrows and pulled a face to show that she was both confused and strangely impressed by Phoebe. "Wow," she finally managed.

When the other woman went into where she was from, Darcy jumped on it, eager to move past the things she couldn't wrap her head around and continue a more normal conversation. "I've always wanted to go there," she admitted. "Just for a visit, you know? Mostly because I've always wanted to ride on a cable car, just to say that I have." That was the truth. Ever since she was a little kid, when she, Rachel, and Anneliese used to have their sleepovers, they'd lay in a circle with their heads touching, legs spread out like a starfish with one too many legs, and talk all night long. One of the common discussions was where they would go right that minute if they had the chance to go anywhere in the world. Rachel always said something nerdy like Stonehenge. Anneliese would always come out with something predictable like Disney World. Darcy, on the other hand, changed it up all the time.

"I want to go on the trolleys in San Fransisco."
"I wanna ride one of the boat things in Italy."
"I'd go hang-gliding over the whole continent of Antarctica to see if it's as cold in the air as they say it is on the ground!"

"I just always thought it'd be kind of cool," she finished, blushing slightly. She wanted to pretend that the conversation hadn't gone back to the strange. Darcy wanted to pretend like she was hanging out with Rachel again, before Rachel did the worst thing a friend could ever do. She missed having a best friend and she wondered if she would ever have one here, and if she did, would it be different because of the environment and the fact that she'd be a mommy instead of a socialite? Her bashful smile faded entirely into a weak frown.

Nodding, Darcy took the amulet and put it around her neck. "Yeah, that's what Connor said," she agreed. "To wear it all the time." Until just that moment, she hadn't considered how uncomfortable it was probably going to be to wear it while sleeping, but it was what it was; she had no choice.

Darcy chewed her bottom lip and took in the information Phoebe was feeding her. She'd fact check later, maybe, if it didn't sound legitimate enough. For the time being, holy water and the Latin version of "Christ" sounded like pretty good demon deterrents, so she had no reason to question it. Finally, Phoebe said something that Darcy could smile about again and she did, looking down and rubbing her stomach again without realizing she was doing so. "Yeah, that's what I hear, anyway," she replied. "I mean, the genius thing I've only heard of Connor, but I know there's a metric crap-ton of Harry Potter characters," she said, then paused, blushed, and corrected herself, "people here which I never thought I'd be able to experience but, hey, 'you never know' has a whole new meaning for me, now, I guess," she laughed.

She hadn't considered the idea that there were things other than demons out there. "Like what...?" she asked reluctantly. Darcy wanted an Ethan here. She really genuinely felt like she needed one to keep her safe and help her through her pregnancy and, well, push her to keep trying to be a better person when now it seemed like there was no reason to, since the world was clearly ending.

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total_milf
2011-08-29 06:09 pm UTC (link)

Sam would have been her first choice, since he was an expert, but he was married so that was a no go. No wife in their right mind would let their husband spend all of his free time with some other woman, interested or not. Darcy wasn't, for the record, interested in Sam Winchester apart from the fact that he seemed like a nice guy and wanted to help when she needed it. She wouldn't have slept with him if someone paid her to, but she did genuinely wish he could be her Ethan. To be fair, she never slept with Ethan and probably never would.

Her second choice would have been Clark, since he had already been so nice as to bring her ice cream when she was having a wicked craving...but she could not gauge whether he was old enough for her taste, just looking at him, and she didn't want to ask. Third choice went to Connor, because he lived in the complex and seemed to know his shit pretty well. She had already gotten the vibe from him, though, that he probably couldn't have wanted less to be a part of her life, so recruiting him as an Ethan replacement didn't really seem like an option. She would have to keep looking.

"God, I don't want to have my babies here..." she whispered more to herself than to Phoebe, but once it was out in the open, she looked back up at the other woman and gave a soft sigh, shaking her head. "I didn't want them, you know?" she admitted, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them. She hadn't told anyone, not even Ethan. "I was excited when I thought it was one and I just knew in my heart it was going to be a baby girl. And then, when Marcus left me, I packed my crap and flew off to England and kept telling myself it was going to be awesome to have a little Mini Me...and then," she went on, trying very hard not to cry even though her hormones were getting the best of her, "when I found out it was twin boys I didn't want them at all!" she wailed, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm a horrible mother already!"

After a pause, Darcy tried to compose herself, taking a deep breath and wiping her eyes, shaking her head. "I'm sorry...wow...these fucking hormones...I didn't mean to dump that on you," she said, sincerely apologetic. "Please don't tell anyone...and please don't judge me, because it's different now; I really do want them, now," she finished quickly in an attempt to redeem herself.

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powerofpheebs
2011-08-29 09:16 pm UTC (link)

Phoebe may not have been an empath any more, but she still knew when people were hurting. She could be as talkative and as rambly as the next person, but it was obvious Darcy needed to get all of that out of her system. Phoebe made a living helping others with their problems. She was attempting to do it here, too, even if she was finding it much more difficult.

But what Darcy was telling her wasn't as difficult as 'should humanity live or die'. Her problem was mortal, not supernatural. Darcy's problem, Phoebe could handle.

She waited until the other woman was finished, letting her dry her eyes and make her excuses. And then she smiled softly. Reaching out, she gave the pretty brunette a quick squeeze and then gave a quick nod. "Come on," she said, motioning Darcy back towards the elevators. "Come with me."

She didn't say anything else until they were heading up to Phoebe's room. "What you need is some tea. And my sister's cookies. Piper used to be a chef, actually. Her boys will be lucky if they don't grow up as big as houses." Well. Technically, she'd already met both boys. And Mel, too, which she was still getting used to, as she hadn't even known of Mel's existence at the time.

Phoebe led the way into her apartment and motioned for Darcy to take a seat. "Get comfy. You should be off your feet as much as possible." She went through the motions of making tea, chamomile to honor Piper's theory that it was calming. She also plated a few cookies. Hell, Darcy was eating for three after all. "Hormones are hell," she confirmed. "But you think that's bad? Try carrying the heir to the source of all evil. Want to talk about a baby that doesn't actually belong?" She could laugh about it by then. At the time, though, it had broken her heart. Still, it gave her a topic of discussion, and let Darcy know that she did understand, even if only on a surface level. "I mean, I've had crap exes, but he sort of took the cake on that one. And the baby, well... Apparently magical babies are already thinking and using their powers in the womb. I did, once. Helped my mom and my sisters cast a pretty big spell before I was born. And my nephew gave my sister a force field, kept her pretty much invincible while she was pregnant. Me, though, no, I get the half-demon baby who throws fireballs and hurts the doctor doing my prenatal exams. You are getting prenatal exams, right?"

So Phoebe could change topics on a dime. Whatever. The point was that Phoebe wasn't judging. And she was, for the most part, very understanding of Darcy's situation. It was something, at least.

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total_milf
2011-08-30 01:51 am UTC (link)

Still sniffling — "Don't sniffle, Darcy Jane. That's unattractive and unladylike; go get a tissue and blow your nose. Primly! No one needs to hear a foghorn, either," — and wiping at her eyes as they continued to leak, Darcy allowed herself to be led back toward the elevators with Phoebe. She only nodded and followed dutifully, unable and unwanting to change course. She held her stomach and thought to Baby A and Baby B, whom she still hadn't gotten around to naming, that she did want them. She was going to be a good mother, if it killed her. She was sorry that she hadn't wanted them and she was sorry she'd been so bitter, but things were going to change and they had already started to. She was excited for them, even if she was still terrified beyond all recognition. They were hers and she was going to love them. She wanted them to know it.

Phoebe led her into what was, presumably, her own room and Darcy followed silently, red-rimmed eyes pointed downward, because she couldn't make herself look at the other woman. She only nodded that tea sounded good. Cookies sounded better, but she'd only pick at them, even if she was hungry, because Darcy was already as big as a house and she didn't want Phoebe to see her new addiction to food, even if everyone kept telling her it was perfectly acceptable.

She sat when Phoebe motioned for her to do so and she curled up in the corner of the couch, hugging one of the pillows, allowing herself to completely forget that this woman was essentially a stranger and this couch and pillow weren't Darcy's to cry all over. Still silently crying, she finally looked up when Phoebe started to talk about her own pregnancy. In perspective, Darcy's experience was not that bad. Even if one figured in the fact that it had stemmed from an affair while she'd been engaged and that both of those men left her in the end. She figured that her expression was enough to show that she sympathized and understood the moral of the story: It could be so much worse, Darce.

Darcy didn't speak again until she was pointedly asked a question, at which point, she nodded weakly and, in a watery, wobbly voice answered, "Quinn and Puck suggested Dr. Tam, since I don't have a job right now. I've seen him once and had an appointment just before I got here, too," she replied. "I'll go back in, too, I mean...but just, I haven't needed to just yet; it was only last week."

She cleared her throat, while watching Phoebe getting together the tea and cookies — "You don't need cookies, Darcy Jane. Love and success are not at the bottom of a cookie jar and you'll never find a husband in the back of the refrigerator," — trying to remind herself that she would need to at least eat one to avoid a lecture of some kind about eating for three. "Thank you," she finished in a small voice.

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powerofpheebs
2011-08-30 06:41 am UTC (link)

"Plenty of us don't have jobs here," Phoebe admitted, looking a little ashamed of herself. "Which I hate, by the way. I worked way too hard to be independent to end up on the bottom of the heap. But I don't exist in this world, it isn't like I can go right back to where I was." Which really, really pissed her off. But what could she do about it? Nothing, that's what. Start from scratch, maybe, if that's what she wanted. Would she be able to deal with being back at the bottom of the heap? It was bad enough she felt like she was back under Prue's scrutiny at all times. "But I hear Dr. Tam's the best. I haven't had a reason to go see him yet, hoping I can keep it that way for a while." Doctors weren't Phoebe's favorite thing ever.

She settled on the other end of the couch, leaving the cookies on the coffee table so Darcy could pick at them if she chose. She placed a cup of tea in the woman's hands and smiled sympathetically. "For what it's worth? I'd be scared to death if I were you. I've dealt with these sorts of things, it doesn't make it any easier. Twins? And by yourself?" She pulled her feet up beneath her, sipping at her own cup. "Good thing about this place is, you've got instant babysitters. Need a breather? How many people here would kill to get their hands on a fat, squishy baby boy to play with?"

She would. Oh, sure, her vision had shown her a girl. But Piper's future had said a girl and they'd gotten Wyatt instead. So who knew? Every time Phoebe thought she'd pushed the idea aside, it poked its head back up with a vengeance. She wanted to be a mommy and badly. And knowing that, even for a moment, Darcy hadn't wanted to be, was shocking to her. But she could understand it, too.

"My sister had planned for a girl," she pointed out, neglecting to mention that they'd assumed as much thanks to a trip to the future. She'd probably confused poor Darcy enough already. "She loves her little boy now more than anything. And you've got twice the baby to love. They will look silly if you dress them in pretty little dresses, though."

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total_milf
2011-08-31 12:27 am UTC (link)

A small frown crossed Darcy's face. She had some prospects, but no real position yet. Rumor had it she might not even exist in this world, in which case, she wouldn't be able to get a replacement for her driver's license, which was still in Ethan's apartment, six years in the past and over the pond. "Yeah...I know what you mean," she agreed vaguely. Darcy, too, had worked very hard to reach her own independant success and she was going to miss the status that came with her job from Manhattan. She had already started to miss it in London, honestly. The frown was replaced with a brief flicker of a smile before it returned. "Yeah, he's good; I like him so far," she replied. She nodded her understanding to Phoebe's interest in not needing a doctor. Darcy was the same way, although the babies weren't going to allow her the luxury of avoiding them, at least not for the next eighteen years or so.

Giving a weak but grateful smile, Darcy took the tea cup from Phoebe and sipped at it, looking over the edge of the cup at her newfound companion. After hearing what Phoebe had to say, her eyes dropped again and she took another sip of the tea. "I'm scared as hell," she admitted in a near whisper. "And that's part of why..."

Darcy took a deep breath and sighed around the lip of the cup before lowering it. "I don't know anyone here. Not really," she said. "Most of the people I feel like I can trust, I haven't even met in person. How can I just hand over my kids to total strangers just to take a breather?" she asked shakily. It was more rhetorical than anything, so she went back to the tea and lowered her eyes again. A weak smile surfaced at Phoebe's comment about the dresses. "That part sucks still, no matter how much I love my unborn boys," she sighed honestly.

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powerofpheebs
2011-09-01 09:19 pm UTC (link)

Phoebe gave another little smile, hopefully of a reassuring nature. Glancing down at Darcy's abdomen, she smirked a bit. "I think you have a few months still before you have to start worrying about leaving them with anyone," she pointed out, giggling despite herself. "That's plenty of time to meet people. To start to trust them. You're not the only one here expecting, after all. Your boys could end up with loads of friends to play with." Which actually was sort of terrifying. Bringing all those children into an apocalyptic setting? It made her sort of feel like they needed a specific demon protected daycare in this place.

"And if they have girls? You can dress them up! And the dads can teach your boys baseball or fishing or whatever they do for fun here in Kansas." Phoebe's nose wrinkled slightly. For all of her supernatural abilities, she wasn't exactly Ms. World Traveler. She'd lived in New York for those years after high school and, of course, there was that period of living in Hong Kong. But she barely knew her own country. Maybe she should take after Prue and road trip around the place.

Would've been a lot easier with Paige there to orb her around.

"I actually lived in New York for a while myself," she pointed out, grasping on to the things they did actually have in common. Since, apparently, motherhood would never be one of them. Not the way Phoebe's luck was running. "Brooklyn, but I worked in Manhattan." Because she'd had to fend for herself and being eighteen and alone meant she did what she'd had to do.

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total_milf
2011-09-04 01:33 am UTC (link)

"Yeah, three and a half months, which is a lot of time," Darcy reluctantly agreed, tacking on, "but it doesn't feel like it. You know what I mean? It just makes me nervous." Eventually, Darcy would have to get a job, and then what? Who was going to watch her kids then? She'd have to find someone she trusted enough to do it full time or else hope like hell she could find a work at home position...but even then, she'd need someone to help her. The more she thought about it, the more she missed Ethan...and the more she hated Marcus for leaving her.

Though, Phoebe's enthusiasm and sense of community spirit was starting to make Darcy feel a little more relaxed. "You think so? I wish so much that my kids would have a dad. I never wanted to do it this way. I was sure Marcus would stick around; I was positive he'd be just as excited as I was. He wasn't," she muttered.

Brightening slightly, Darcy clung, too, to the thing that Phoebe mentioned that they'd had in common. And what a thing to have — Manhattan. God, she missed it so much...London was nice, but it would never be the Big Apple and Lawrence couldn't even wish hold a candle to either of them. "Cool, what did you do? In Manhattan, I mean?"

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