C5: The House of Den
"Soooooo...who was the guy?"
Den could only sigh. She knew she couldn't deny anything now that Jane had seen Anders. Shit, if she'd walked in on them she would have made him stay and talked with him herself!
"Just a guy, don't get your hopes up," Den turned about to look at her friend and rolled her eyes at the expression on her face, "oh, piss off, Jane! It's not like that and you can stop looking like that!"
"Looking like what?" Her friend asked innocently.
"Like you've just discovered I have a secret lover stashed away," she pointed one of the clean utensils at her friends face, "and I HAVEN'T before you start jumping to conclusions. No...this was...just a new friend."
"Uh-huh," Jane walked in and began to potter about, grabbing her apron off of the hook by the door, "so where did you meet this new friend?"
"Actually, do you remember the guy that nearly got hit by the car?"
"What? That was him?!" Jane walked over to Den as she began to tie the back of her apron and smirked, "You lucky girl! You saved his life AND - from what I saw - he was pretty hot! Did you-"
"I'm stopping you RIGHT there," Den glared and walked by Jane as she began to get the ingredients out and cook them, "not a chance. I'm done. No more dates for me for...well a while! Not after that bloody show the other day!"
"Oh, come on! Surely it wasn't THAT bad."
Den shot her friend a withering look.
"Ok, so it was bad."
"I don't know what was worse. My broken heel, scraped knee or the fact that Darren couldn't stop talking about himself over Lunch. AND staring at my tits," she shook her head as she felt a headache approach and she blamed the memory of 'disgusting Darren', "what a leech! Every time I put my hand down on the table, he kept reaching over to rub my wrist! Gross, double disgusting...just..."
"Den!" Jane dove forward and caught her friend, just as she keeled to the side. Den grabbed at her head and felt her legs give way beneath. The pain in her head had returned. The strange, horrifying, dizzying sensation that made her feel like falling to the floor and curling into a ball.
"Steady," Jane's voice called to her and helped pull her along, sitting her down at the chair by the table. Once seated, her friend quickly set to work and opened the back door to let some air in and then grabbed her friend a cold glass of water.
Den's hand covered her eyes as she tried to fight the pain and the flashes that appeared in her mind. She tried to ignore them, but they were quick.
Monsters. Mother! Father! Home. The Mountains. Kili, Thorin. Mam. Fili.
Fili.
"Den?"
The pain subsided and Den finally pulled her hand away from her eyes, knowing it was ok and that the light wouldn't hurt her anymore.
She was greeted by the worried but resigned expression of her friend.
"Is it...the flashes?"
Den could only nod.
A few months previously, Den had suffered her first one in Jane's presence and her friend had insisted she go to the doctor about them. But Den had explained she couldn't.
It was on the third time she collapsed and smacked her head against the kitchen counter that Jane had been seething and threatened to quit if Den didn't go and get help.
So she'd told her the truth. She told her she couldn't go because of what she saw. Faces. Friends. Family? People she cared about. People she dreamed about. It terrified her and for the longest time, she'd thought she was going crazy.
But Jane, dear, sweet Jane had been her rock. She hadn't called her odd or crazy or insisted she get help. She'd actually sat and talked with her about it and then, after a few quiet moments, had gotten them cups of tea each and closed the restaurant for half the day so Den could rest and recover.
And now, here she was again. Always faithful to her friend. Jane was more than just her assistant. She was her second in command, her best friend and the only other woman Den really knew at this time in her life. The one she'd told about her past. The good times...and the worst.
"I know you don't believe that malarchy. Heck, I don't-"
"I don't believe in it, but...well, past-life has never sounded so...very much how you described it," Jane shrugged her shoulders and pulled up a chair next to Den, "you told me about things I could only read in a storybook! What was it today?"
Den couldn't help but smile.
"Monsters with disgusting teeth. People I called parents...family...I saw a great battle and...that boy-"
"With beautiful long, thick hair?"
"And the blue eyes," Den really liked that image. The man she saw...she knew she must have loved him at some point. He was odd-looking in some ways, with his big ears and strange moustache, but he had a wonderful smile and gorgeous eyes. His eyes were her favourite thing about him.
Where had she seen them recently?
"Oh shit," Jane huffed when they heard the front door open and someone call out from the other room, "you take five, I got this!"
Her friend dashed away but composed herself when she got to the door that separated the kitchen and the pub's main floor.
Den was left by herself, contemplating all she had seen today. All the faces and places were important, she KNEW that...but...that one face.
Those blue eyes...she had seen them somewhere before.
Or, at the very least, their twin.
"Anders," she whispered and looked towards the open back door, almost expecting him to appear. Hoping.
She hoped she'd see him again.
'Oh, don't worry,' the voice in the back of her mind told her, 'you'll see him again.'
