True to herself, Dawn's mother calls at the worst possible time. Dawn is pacing around her living room, waiting for the kicking to stop. When the phone rings, she spaces her feet apart to bend down and slide it off the coffee table.
"Hello?"
"Great, I caught you. How are things going over there?"
"Fine." Dawn can already feel her blood pressure rising. "I'm actually busy with something right now. Can I call you back?"
"This won't take very long. I need you to send me copies of anything the doctor's office gives you. It can't be too much longer now, and they always underestimate their drugs."
"Well, the doctors are more qualified for these things than you, so I'm going to go ahead and trust them." Absently, she rubs at her back. "Was there anything else you wanted?"
"I really don't like you going over those things by yourself."
"I'm not." The quicker Dawn can get out of this conversation, the quicker she can go back to stopping the kicking. "I have a friend look over everything to double check. So it's fine. I'm fine. And I really do need to get back to something, so I'll talk to you later."
"I'll be sure to call. Take care."
Dawn tosses the phone on the couch, watching it come perilously close to disappearing under the cushions. Gingerly, she eases down next to it and brings her feet up. Anders has been good with talking while they're at work, but once she's home she can't get a break. Sometimes she's able to get it to stop by playing music, but it reacts best to Anders' mindless babble.
She expects to be able to get some work done when she goes into the office, but Anders tells her he has an important errand to run and leaves her with a low table pulled up to the couch and a promise of returning in an hour or two. She manages to work for some time, but then she's reduced to sitting still and waiting.
She's surprised when Axl shows up. She hasn't seen the youngest Johnson brother in a long time. Whatever reason he has for showing up again, she has a feeling that Anders has done something to annoy his family. Axl's face is reminiscent of Mike's when he would barge in to argue.
Axl takes in the empty desk and Dawn on the couch. "Where is he?"
"Don't know. Said he'd be back sometime today, so you're welcome to wait."
Unlike himself, Axl frowns and growls through his teeth.
"When he gets back, tell him he needs to be at Mike's bar."
Axl's already retreating when Dawn remembers the edits due at the end of the day. "He might not be able to make it. Most of this stuff needs his signature."
"It doesn't matter. Make sure he's there." Dawn hasn't heard Axl sound gruff. When he interacted with Anders and his other brothers, he always appeared the goofy baby of the family. Dawn hadn't thought anything of it when Anders' bothers stopped coming in to see him. If anything it was a blessing, and kept Anders more focused. But seeing the other side of the separation challenges that. Dawn is entirely sure that whatever change has happened was good for the family.
He has to admit, Michele knows how to throw Mike when she wants. The four of them have been stuffed into a booth for a half an hour, and Anders brother had yet to show up. He had been reluctant to meet with them, mostly based on the fact that no one who wanted to meet Anders alone had anything good in mind.
After the waitress had set down their food, Stacey gave Michele a pointed look. "Are we going to just eat, or actually bring him in?"
"Into what?" Anders snags some of the appetizers. "You're not going to put a bag over my head and take me to an underground lair, I hope?"
"No." Michele glances at Ingrid, who nods. "It's actually about the search for Frigg."
That peaks Anders interest. He hopes it's some sort of good news. If it's anything less, his brothers won't be happy if they find out. Maybe that's why the goddesses are running it by him first. It's not like Frigg will be any help to him, being a minor god and all.
"You've got a lead?"
"We found her."
"What?" They're messing with him. That's why they haven't immediately gone to Axl. Why on fuck are they only telling Anders, in the corner of a backwoods diner?
"About a week ago. We wanted to make sure it was her this time."
"So why haven't you mentioned anything to Axl? He is Odin."
"Yes, well." Ingrid's hands flutter nervously. "There's a little bit of a problem with that. You see, both her brother and we are…reluctant to introduce her to Axl. Or Mike."
He understands, of course. Both of them are almost gone, completely overrun by the gods. Anders doesn't know if it's similar to how Bragi takes over his body sometimes, or if they've too have changed. If he and Ty are afraid to be near the other two, then there's more than enough reason to keep a stranger away, Frigg or not.
"So why are you telling me?" It's the only thing that doesn't make sense. He's had little contact with the goddesses on his own. "What do you expect me to do?"
"Nothing." Michele's eyes challenge him from across the table. "Unless we need you to."
"What we mean is that we need another person to watch over her, make sure nothing unfortunate happens." Ingrid tries to calm the waters. "We thought you would have more experience in keeping tabs without anyone finding out."
It's a polite way of saying he doesn't care about going behinds his brothers backs.
"What's in it for me?"
It's explained simply. Anders helps them, and they don't chop his balls off. It's ironic how much it reminds him of that night with the tranquilizers. Or it would be, if he didn't know that these three are much more likely at succeeding.
"Are there any plans to introduce her to Axl when he pulls his head out of his ass?" Anders waits for a waitress to walk by. "I get that it's a terrible idea right now. But things could change."
"She didn't seem too excited about ever meeting him actually. And we're not going to force her into anything."
"Alright." Anders considers the possible consequences if his brothers were to find out. But he already knows too much to come out of it without injuries, so he might as well go all the way. "I'm in. Who is she?"
Anders is back on time, surprisingly. Dawn had been nervous about Axl coming back, not knowing if he would be even stranger. She means to bring it up immediately, but Anders holds finger up while he closes the door and checks his phone. When he sits down next to her, she immediately lets some worries out.
"Axl was here earlier and acting strange. I thought about calling you, but I wasn't sure if I should."
He lets out a breath and turns his neck a few times, trying to get it to crack. "There's been some changes with Axl lately. If he comes here again, call me as soon as you can. Same goes for Mike."
"What about Ty?"
"Ty's fine. If he needs to talk to me, you can call me."
"Is everything okay?"
Anders rolls his head along the back of the couch to look at her. "Yes. Why?"
"Nothing."
Dawn returns to work and watches Anders out of the corner of her eye. He leans further back into the couch. When she turns back to get a better look at him, he looks asleep. She pokes him in the shoulder and he opens his eyes.
"Hm. Sorry." Hopping up, he picks up some things on the bottom of the work pile Dawn has and carries them to his desk.
Later, the door opens and when Anders looks up, he frowns. "Dawn told me you were here earlier." Axl comes in to stand in front of the desk.
"It's about family stuff."
Anders sighs. "Out in the hall." He ushers Axl to walk in front of him. Dawn can't hear anything, but when Anders comes back, she can follow the lines from his face down into his neck.
"Come here." She pats the couch. "I know you won't get any work done, so you might as well keep me company."
He falls down on the cushion, sunk low enough that his legs are stretched out in front of him. Dawn kind of wants to ask him to talk, just to make sure she won't get kicked. The last few days have been calm, so she's worried that it'll come back with a vengeance. But Anders is dangerously close to start drinking, and it's barely into the afternoon. It's not like he hasn't drunk even earlier, but Dawn would rather not be the cause of it.
He doesn't fall asleep, though he closes his eyes for a while. He sits up occasionally and works with Dawn on different accounts. But he mostly leans back into the couch and either dozes or watches Dawn. She figures he's just double-checking to make sure she doesn't make any mistakes. It doesn't make it any less unnerving. When she comes back from a trip to the toilet, she finally gets him into conversation.
"I have another doctor's appointment soon."
"Really?" She nods. "Would you like me to come?"
"No, thanks. It'll be short, anyway." She tries to get comfortable. "I'll just have to take an extra half hour on my lunch break for it. I was going to mention in earlier, but Axl kind of showed up, and…"
"Yeah."
"I know you said everything in fine. But I just want to be sure. Are you okay?"
He looks up at her, hands stilling from picking at a loose button on his sleeve. He brings his hand up and brushes the backs of his fingers against her arm. "Yes." He looks away too soon, so Dawn knows that there's something he won't mention to her. So she just reaches over fix a few strands of hair, nails barely scratching at his skin, and returns to the computer.
"Thanks for worrying, though." He twirls the button on the last threads. "I know you've got enough on your plate."
"I can always make time." She knocks their knees together. " Besides, you talk all day just so I won't get a foot in my kidney. I can sacrifice some of my self-pity."
He laughs once. "I like it. I know you don't listen, but I like talking to you." The button snaps off from his sleeve. "And to your baby. But you're the one that actually understands words."
Dawn swallows, trying to ignore the fact that as of late, Anders is the only person who talks to her. But she's never bothered listening, even before this all started.
"Well, I'll be sure to pay attention when I can." She will, too. "So don't say anything stupid."
The appointment is short, thankfully. The doctor only has a few questions, mainly to check in and be sure the pregnancy is going smoothly.
"Is there anything you're worried about, or might think is unusual?"
"Not really." Dawn tries to get her legs crossed. "Just a lot of kicking. I can't get it to stop, but when my um – my friend talks, it calms down."
"That's quite normal. Babies become accustomed to voices while in the womb. They usually carry the comfort over to infancy. I wouldn't be too concerned. The kicking is a good sign. Means everybody is doing well."
Dawn forces a smile. Thinking about someone's baby wanting to hear Anders's voice puts a knot in her stomach. It shouldn't. Anders likes children much less than she does, and will be glad once Dawn is back to the office as one person. Still, there's a little part of her that's going to be disappointed when he doesn't spend the entire day talking to her.
When Anders finds him, Olaf is laying on the roof of his car, a towel rolled up under his head. The sun has long since gone down, and his Grandfather is blowing smoke into the night sky. When Anders gets closer to the car, Olaf leans up on an elbow to peer over the edge. He snags one of the beers Anders is holding and takes a swig. He climbs off the roof and opens the tailgate, so they can sit.
"This is about Axl and Mike."
Anders nods. "They're not them anymore. I know that the gods can control us at times, but it's been such a long time."
"It's not the gods doing all the work." Olaf tosses his empty bottle behind him. "They're changing. Becoming more like your father."
Anders doesn't say anything and drags his toes through the sand.
"They're going to forget you and Ty are important. But they have plans for power, which them twice as dangerous."
"Are you leaving?"
Olaf at least has the decency to look ashamed. "For a short time. Just making a fallback plan."
Anders knows that Olaf is capable of taking care of himself, but he still thinks back to the bag he has locked in his safe. He knows Ty has a passport, as does Dawn. But it would be difficult for Olaf to get one. Anders could call in some favors and get something within a couple weeks.
"How do you feel about going across the Pacific?"