It's been a few weeks since the museum incident, they're in July, now, and the warmth of the sun's giving people plenty of opportunity for people running around wearing less clothes than Miami.
The bruising around Lila's wrist finally receded, no longer did she need to hide her wrist from any prying eyes, but every now again, she felt the phantom pain of something grabbing her hand.
For some reason, she can't remember what happened leading up to her getting the bruise, it's like a block in her head, she can't get rid of, and it's infuriating for her as she's trying to joggle something out of her mind.
A strange place to get the bruises, her hand should've been purple and bruised, too, flattened, while she's at it, somehow the handheld cannon getting destroyed the way it did, further added to the confusion.
Theodore didn't care much, though, he was just happy that Lila still had her hand, and the bruises didn't lead to any complications.
Samuels Argyle, meanwhile, gotten his comeuppance for the ordeal, last the two heard, the guests all band together not only suing him, but also the company that allowed him and his partner, an exposed undercover paid off by the company to lure him into stealing the equipment.
By the time it all zero'd out, Samuels Argyle's spending his time in prison alongside people from the company that Al happily dug out of the woodwork with the evidence proving their guilt.
As for the museum, it wasn't left to rot like some expected, instead, it was rebuilt, everything from Samuels Argyle's removed, and it became another museum, this time, from reputable sources, that Al double checked out of curiosity.
Maybe one day, they'll go out to the museum and see what changed, but not too soon, the memories fresh, and it's fortunate that no one died during the commotion, barring the circumstances.
It's one of those things.
For now, Lila's working at the library, unafraid of people seeing her wrist, since the bruising went away, sore as her wrist may feel at times, but she still has it, so that's good enough for her.
There's a lull in people coming to their department, children gone home early because tomorrow's a school day, and they've gotten their fill of books and librarians reading to them.
With work finished, Lila filled the time talking to Bill beside her.
Bill had her fill of today's trip to the chocolate inspired restaurant, deciding on something daring.
It's a new item celebrating summer, something quirky, and even more, they have a vegetarian option, comparably tasty, going by Bill, that they even have an option with both types.
P'ores.
The actual name for this dish.
House-made marshmallow that contained tender pork, made into three-inch blocks, cut into manageable squares, further cut into three halves.
Three halves made it easier to try it in different stages with a table pit for patrons to toast the marshmallow halves to their content.
With house-made graham crackers and a chocolate-based barbecue sauce, P'ores became an instant hit, as it's counterpart.
D'ores.
Again, the name of the dish.
Made with dulse, a type of seaweed, it's like the pork version, but dyed to a light pink with unsweetened beet juice to help differentiate the two versions. Even came with a piece of dulse to show guests how it was made. Came with the same graham crackers and barbecue sauce and it's a hit among the crowds, especially those on the fence trying something like it.
Bill ate until there weren't anything on the plate, but she said it was fabulous, something unique, unexpected, she can't wait to have more down the line before summer ended.
"Wouldn't the marshmallow overtake the pork?" Lila inquired if this item suffered from the sweetness and creaminess of the marshmallow masking and burying the pork flavor, which Bill swore that it was heavily balanced, that she can taste both the pork and the marshmallow.
Shockingly, it's well-made that it didn't taste terrible, and when patrons toast the marshmallow, the more it tastes like a pulled pork sandwich.
Coupled with the chocolate barbecue sauce that isn't overtly sweet and gains a smoky flavour after being warmed by the open flames on the table, it'd be near mistakable to think someone's eating pulled pork.
It's on Bill's top ten list, definitely!
"I'll take your word for it," Lila giggled as Bill gushed over the items, going far as planning on going back tomorrow for another round.
She encouraged Lila to try it, noting that it's up Lila's alley, which Lila said that she'll think about it.
"About what?" Lila heard Theodore as he came by with a cart full of books, returning them to the front to be checked in.
Lila relayed what Bill said and Theodore hinted he did have to make up some birthday plans, as his birthday's on fast approach.
Which Lila commented he would just eat everything the restaurant had and then some, even before they brought out the candles.
"I'd share!" Theodore resented the accusation that he would eat every known item on the menu and not share with people, but Lila found it hard to believe.
"Yeah, Hammond uses a napkin," Bill recalled Hammond using a napkin when he's done eating, which Theodore further resented.
The women had a laugh at his own expense and it was quickly ended when Theodore sees Hammond walking through the entrance to their department, walking with his umbrella, behind him, two people following him.
Instantly, Lila recognized them as her chestnut eyes glistened under the soft light.
"Heya luv," she heard Billy greet her.
Ethan commented as he looked around the library, "Feels good being on solid land for once!"
Hammond mentioned that he found the brothers on the first floor and brought them up here, figuring he'd kill two birds with one stone, as he was coming back from filing some paperwork with the clerks.
"Beavis! Butthead!" Lila's filled with glee as she came from behind the counter with her arms outstretched, hugging both brothers at once, happy to see them after so long on the sea.
The brothers hugged her, their muscled arms nearly covered her as they're taller than Lila, bending down to hug her.
"Where's dad?" Lila asks them where their father was and Billy said that last he heard, their father's in California for the moment, before mentioning he told them of his new position that he'll be transitioning towards in the coming months or so, Ethan bringing up that their mother's thrilled.
Theodore's watching them conversation with each other and as he's doing that, he sees that they share similar traits to Lila's father, but something about them's different to Lila, and more he heard them talking, they didn't have Lila's neutral southern drawl, but instead, Northamptonshire accents. Didn't sound like they spent too much time watching the Telly, they sounded legitimate.
Curiouser, curiouser, and then Theodore remembered Lila's father mentioning a woman called Daphne.
"What brought you two back to the land of plenty?" Lila asked them, before they told her.
"Mum's birthday's tomorrow, remember, we wanted to surprise her," Billy tells Lila that they wanted to surprise their mother on her birthday, as she didn't expect them home for maybe, another two months.
The way Billy said it, seemed like Lila was told of this earlier.
"She'll be chuffed seeing us stroll up the driveway," Ethan nodded, his sun-bleached hair stiffly moving.
As they talked, Hammond mentioned that Theodore ought to make plans for his birthday, in passing, as he walked past his brother, before heading towards his office, while he overheard the siblings talked, seeing the hidden disposition behind Lila's chestnut eyes as the brothers talked about their mother.
He wanted to peak into her mind, hearing her inner thoughts, but chose to refrain himself, wanting to hear it from her on her own terms, as he sees the brothers coming over to the counter, greeting Bill, before looking towards Theodore with curiosity.
"Hm, what's with Ichabod?" Billy pushed up his round glasses, looking at Theodore with curiosity in his blue eyes, while Ethan noted as he rubbed his blue eyes, he's certainly thin like a crane.
Joining his side, Lila introduced him to her brothers, who looked at him with intrigue, up close, Theodore sees the subtle differences between them and Lila.
Both having tanned skin from working topside all-day, blue eyes, sun-bleached hair that goes along with it, muscles from loading and unloading, and Billy having round glasses with a lanyard attached to them, they have fine lines on their faces like Paul, but their noses aren't like Paul or his daughter.
"Hammond never mentioned anything about you," Billy noted that Hammond never brought up Theodore much before the aloof giant made his appearance, which Theodore muttered he wasn't surprised that Hammond barely talked about him.
Turning his head, Billy reminded Lila of the time they're going over to their mother and Lila weakly smiled as she said she'll be there.
"Don't forget to sign the birthday card, luv," Ethan poked her that she forgotten to sign their mother's birthday card.
Lila assures them that she'll sign it before they head over to the house tomorrow, she's just been caught up on things, lately, it slipped her mind.
"Did you make sure the reservation's set?" Billy asked Ethan if he made sure the reservation to the restaurant, they're taking their mother's set, and Ethan affirmed he checked it before the ship docked.
They discussed more on their mother's birthday with Theodore eavesdropping on them, they talked to him and Bill for a little while, too.
Eventually, time passed and looking at the time, seeing it's almost time for the library to shutdown for the night, the Watson brothers bid Lila farewell, as they're heading to their hotel for the time being.
They only have two days to enjoy with their mother before returning to the docks for their works, so they want to get enough sleep to enjoy it.
Watching them leave, Lila sighs before she caught a quizzical look by Theodore.
"What?" Lila looked at him before shaking his head saying that he's surprised about her brothers, is all.
Shrugging her shoulders, Lila says that they've been like that since they were born.
Beavis and Butthead.
Winding things down in the library, Theodore waited for an opportune time to talk to Lila about the elephant in the room, but dear older brother held him back for some paperwork, by the time he gotten out of it, Lila already gone home.
Unfettered, Theodore uses the power of rifts to get to her flat just as she's preparing her dinner.
He smelled it wafting underneath the door, the irresistible smell of Lila's ramen, smelled it down to the broth she's made.
Knocking on the door, Theodore waited, and Lila poked her head out, looking at him quizzically before stating, "I don't have enough for two and five stomachs."
Waving his hand, Theodore tells her that he didn't come to taste her cooking, he just wanted to talk, on her own terms.
Letting him through the door, Theodore smelled the broth as it simmered with the additions bobbing in the pot, while Lila went over to gently stir it.
"What's on the membrane?" Lila asked him with her back turned while he came over to her kitchen island.
His large hands in his pockets, Theodore says, "You never told me anything about Daphne."
Hearing the name, Lila stiffly turned her head towards him before stating, "It's nothing to worry your little hearts, Theo."
Stubbornly, Theodore exasperated, "Well, how can you not even tell me about your own mother?"
Sharply, Lila turned around to say, "She ain't my mom."
Her chestnut eyes something fierce, but calmed down as she recoiled, catching herself, before apologizing to Theodore, and calmly telling him that Daphne wasn't her mother.
Over dinner, Theodore talks to Lila about Daphne, and learnt that she's Lila's stepmother.
Lila didn't like her very much, but for personal reasons, not that she's abusive or the like to Lila, she was decent, for what it's worth, it's because Lila didn't like the thought of Daphne being her stepmother.
There's something underlying to Lila not liking Daphne that bothered Theodore to the point he outright asked her, "Why don't you like her as your stepmother, if she isn't terrible towards you?"
Slurping the noddles and sipping on the broth, wiping her mouth, Lila sighed as she took a swig of her beer, before telling Theodore, "It's personal."
She didn't want to tell him anything more, but Theodore pestered her, tired of the charade, and Lila opened that her real mother died.
Her father met Daphne while docked one day in Britain while she was with her grandparents, that's all she wrote.
Pointing at himself, Theodore tells her that he knows the feeling, after losing his own mother, but he caught something else behind Lila's chestnut eyes that she wasn't telling him.
"Level with me, what's going on?" Lila wanted to know why Theodore took such intrigue with her personal life and Theodore tells her that she never told him about her stepmother or her biological mother.
She's told him plenty about her brothers and her father, but there's absence with the two mothers.
Also, he sensed her discomfort and wanted to know if something's bothering her, which seemed the case, and Lila tells him frankly, "Theo, I don't need the Doctor's help with a family spat."
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore responded it seems like she wanted help.
"I've known you for centuries at this point, Lee, and I know how stubborn you are," Theodore pointed at her that he's traveled with her long enough to catch onto the subtleties and knows her stubbornness in asking his help.
Finishing her ramen, Lila cleaned up continuing to talk to Theodore who hung around the kitchen island.
"Look, she's a good mother, but she ain't mine," Lila tells him that Daphne isn't a terrible mother, she just isn't Lila's, and never will be.
Looking at her with his icy blue eeys, Theodore remarked, "Just because she isn't related to you by blood doesn't make her any less than a mother, Lee!"
Sitting down across from him, Theodore sees the look in Lila's eyes, and gestured as he wanted her to talk to him.
"There's something more to this, isn't there?" Theodore looked at her with curiosity.
Lila shrugged as she held her beer can as she said, "I just didn't like her coming in and telling me to call her my mom."
They spent hours talking, Theodore giving Lila enough room to talk about what bothered her, letting her get things off her chest, it wasn't a whole lot, but it's enough for Theodore to get the picture.
When Lila's mother died, she felt like a failure, even more when her father remarried, believing it was her fault, that what she did wasn't enough, that he had to remarry.
Oh yes, Theodore managed to read it, seeing as how he and Lila been together for centuries.
"I'm that terrible, am I?" Lila wearily looked to him before he reached out to take her hand into his, gently stroking it as he tells her she isn't.
However, it's unfair to Daphne that Lila's still carrying this well-into adulthood, pointing out that her father clearly loved Daphne, and it isn't any fairer to him having the friction.
"Your father is transferring here full-time, Lee, you're going to see her more, anyhow," Theodore pointed out that Lila can't avoid Daphne forever, with her father's inevitable transfer, he'll be with Daphne, more.
It's the facts of life.
Frowning, Lila responded, "I know."
As he held her hand, Theodore looked over to her as he offered to come with her as support, meet Daphne, it'd give him time to spend with Lila's brothers, as he never met them until then.
It's certainly better than running away from danger.
And.
It's only fair since Lila's been with his family more than once, working with Hammond, that he'll spend time with hers to even the odds.
"Oh, lord, who let this spaceman into my life?" Lila exhaled as she agreed to let Theodore tag along to visit Daphne tomorrow.