Getting Laura cleaned up for the hospital visit was easier than Emma had anticipated. She was too happy to stay still, but she wasn't fighting her. Emma suspected Laura liked dressing up, being pretty. It reminded her of games she'd played with her sister when they were younger, only Kayla had let her wear her lipstick when she asked. Laura was too young.
She pulled Laura's hair into a ponytail, smiling when Laura tried to loosen it. Laura gave herself a quick nod in the mirror before grabbing the card she'd made on the dresser. It was somewhat sloppy, but the point of "Get Well" cards wasn't prettiness. It was about the thought, or so she'd been told.
"Should I go downstairs?" asked Laura, "I don't wanna be late."
"We have fifteen minutes before we leave," said Emma.
Laura jumped from one foot to the other. From her position on her bunk, Megan giggled.
"You're fidgety Laura," she said, "I'm almost glad there's not room for me. You'd be bouncing everywhere."
There was a pause, and hurt flickered over Laura's face.
"I'm joking," Megan said, her words rushed.
The hurt disappeared and Emma gave Megan a grateful look. The child rarely forgot that Laura didn't always understand how changing inflection changed words and, if she thought she'd caused hurt, she would eagerly drop balm.
Megan climbed down from the bunk, her small feet hitting the ground. Amanda, who'd been sitting on the bottom bunk, held out a hand to steady her. Megan took it, smiling, and then let go, walking over to Laura.
"If you're going down, I could go down too," she said, "Just to see you off and make sure Kevin remembers to tell his mom I said hi and I hope she gets well."
"You already told me to tell her," said Laura.
"I want it said by both of you," said Megan, "It's nice that way."
Laura frowned, then nodded, another thing she didn't understand and, as a consequence, was dismissing. If only it were that easy for Emma. Her niece turned, smiling sweetly, and Emma caved. When had she started turning to jelly for Laura?
Probably the moment she saw her.
"I'll be down in eight minutes exactly," said Emma, "And no roughhousing."
"I promise!" Laura said.
She waved, but she was already halfway out the door. Megan eagerly followed after her, and Amanda smiled.
"I remember when Laura didn't even want to leave the room," said Amanda, "I assumed she was just scared of all the people, but then I thought it was the space. Now...I'm not sure much scares her."
"Trust me, there's plenty," Emma said, "It's just...she gets kind of fearless when she thinks she's making someone else happy."
Amanda turned in her bed, cocking her head. Her long golden hair fell over her shoulder when she did. Sometimes Emma was jealous of it. It was so much healthier than her own hair, which was pale, straight and thin from malnutrition. It was growing stronger, and had gotten to the point where most people wouldn't know there was an issue. Her bones and sharp angles were much more noticeable.
But still, sometimes.
"Thinks she's making someone happy?" asked Amanda, "I'm pretty sure Kevin was touched she thought of this."
"No doubt he was," Emma said, "But being touched isn't the same as being happy. You know that."
"Do I?" asked Amanda.
Emma raised her eyebrows, and Amanda got up from her bed. She walked over to the window, leaning out of it. Emma knew Scott had driven his car around front, doubtlessly filling it up with flowers and all of the other little things everyone wanted to give Moira.
"You know, I saw Kurt this morning," Amanda said, "He was kind of nervous about going out somewhere as public as this after his injury. There...there might be a lot of stairs."
A brief pang flared inside her. She hadn't thought of that. She'd known Kurt would jump at the chance to go, had been counting on him to make up the party, but she hadn't thought about his injury. Now that she was, she realized he was just about to the point where he didn't need assistance to move around anymore.
Having someone there to assist him, stay by his side and make sure he didn't falter, would have been good.
"I uh...I...maybe we could, I don't know," Emma said blandly, searching for words, "If you...I don't know how many seats there are but..."
"There aren't enough," Amanda said, sighing, "And you won't offer me your seat."
Emma bit the inside of her cheek.
"I...Laura really wanted to go," she said.
It was the closest to an apology she could give her. Amanda swallowed for a moment, no doubt struggling, as Emma would struggle if she was told to stay behind. The difference between her and Amanda was that Amanda didn't start screaming.
Instead, she gave a brief nod.
"Part of me wanted him to stay, it hasn't been that long since he got shot, and his mother's out doing...hero things," she said, "I didn't ask him to though, because he really wanted to go out and see his aunt."
She shook her head.
"He's so vulnerable sometimes, so good, and sometimes I wonder how I ended up with him," Amanda said, "But, with all those nerves jumping around inside of him, I hope she appreciates that he came out anyway. But, even if she doesn't, she'll be touched that he's there. That's happiness, more or less."
"More or less?" asked Emma.
Amanda looked over her shoulder at her, smiling.
"People like us take what we can get sometimes," she said, "You know that."
People like us. Emma adjusted her sweater nervously before looking at her watch. She had a few more minutes.
"How have you been holding up?" she asked, "What with...everything that's been going on?"
"You mean my boyfriend going through physical therapy and finding out his mom is famous?" asked Amanda, smiling, "Better than you'd think. There are people out there with bigger problems."
"Bigger than him getting shot?" asked Emma.
The smile slipped off Amanda's face.
"No," she said, "Not that. No one...that was...he's fine, I know he's fine, and he...I wasn't there when we didn't know he wouldn't be fine. Dr. McCoy told me when it happened, and do you know where I was? I was in calculus."
She leaned against the window sill.
"He could've died, and I was in calculus," she said, "And now, every time I go to calculus now, a little part of me..."
Amanda shook her head, her eyes blinking rapidly.
"Please make sure he doesn't fall over when he goes out there?" she asked.
Emma nodded, recognizing the words as a dismissal. In any case, her time was up. She'd have to chaperone Laura, and now she'd have to make sure Kurt didn't do anything stupid. Hopefully she'd be able to get some help from Scott.
As she walked through the hall, she wondered about what her friend had said. Take what you can get. Her sister was trapped somewhere, a prisoner in her won body. Laura's father was gone, and Laura had never been blessed with a normal childhood.
At the same time, she was taking care of Laura, who was growing up beautifully. No one was trying to vivisect Emma anymore, so life was definitely better. Yes, she knew that, sometimes, you had to take what you could get.
But she also knew it didn't stop you from wanting more.
Peter cracked his neck. Raven and he had spent the night in the village at one of the small hostels. He'd slept on the floor, because there wasn't a couch, and he didn't want to fight over the bed.. Besides, he really would rather sleep on the floor than get her angry again.
She'd gone over to the front desk to discuss something or other, maybe pretend to ask about good sightseeing places. She'd told him anywhere out of the way would likely be where they would have something set up to establish a perimeter for the factory.
He'd stepped outside on one of the benches to get some fresh air. Peter looked over his shoulder, and saw she was still there, still talking. He sighed and leaned back on the bench, cracking his neck again and trying not to get a cramp.
Fast footsteps reached his ears and he opened his eyes a crack. A young girl was running down the street in a shin-length black dress, chasing a ball. She wasn't moving very fast, probably because she was being very careful not to fall and trip. It was probably the most self-conscious run he'd ever seen.
He watched her for a minute and then cracked his neck again. Peter thought of all the kids at the Institute. His teaching certificate was actually going along pretty good and, in less than a year, he'd be teaching art.
He'd be good at it, or at least the Professor told him he would. He'd already started to plan out some of the art projects, including shoes. He smiled at that thought. Yeah, it'd be easy to get a ton of old shoes, let them go crazy on them. It'd be a good bonding experience for the kids.
The ball rolled toward him, bumping his foot. The girl stopped for a minute, looking at him with worried eyes. He gave her his silliest grin, most of the kids at the school found it pretty disarming, and the girl gave him a tentative smile back.
Peter reached down and held out the ball to her.
"This is yours, right?" he asked.
He knew she probably wouldn't understand him, but he'd been instructed only to speak scraps of Japanese, and badly. He was a dumb tourist after all. Not that he actually knew any good Japanese besides what Raven had taught him.
"Yes sir," she said.
He grinned. So she spoke English. The girl held out her hands and he placed the ball into them.
"Awesome," he said, "Don't run into any walls or anything next time you chase this. You're so small, you'd probably slip through the cracks."
The girl's smile widened, although it was still tentative. Another girl ran around the corner, a year or two older, her red hair flying out behind her. She was dressed identically to the other girl, and eyed Peter distrustfully as she caught up.
She said something to the other girl, who gave a small shrug and replied. He didn't understand either of them, and then the red-headed girl looked back at him. Her eyes were sharp and, combined with her brilliantly red hair, it was unnerving. There was just something piercing in her eyes that made him want to look away.
He didn't though, because he wasn't going to be outstared by a kid.
"Mari tells me you're funny," she said at last, "Say something funny."
Her demanding tone was a little off-putting, but he didn't think it was irritating. It would probably get on a lot of people's nerves though, people like Logan's, but that just meant he had to do a better job.
"Me?" he asked, "No, I'm actually really serious. Look at this face."
She looked at him, raising an eyebrow, then he suddenly crossed his eyes. She blinked, unimpressed.
"Oh, not good enough, huh?" he asked, "You're definitely the most serious kid I met, so I guess I have to try a little bit harder."
He coughed, schooling his face into a serious expression, and then jerked his head to the side. He crossed his eyes and stuck her tongue out. His hands moved by his head, giving himself moose antlers and wriggling his fingers.
She smiled and he punched the air.
"You smiled, I win!" he said.
Both of them smiled then, and he leaned back, satisfied. The red-haired girl took Mari's hand and nodded.
"We need to go meet our nanny for today," she said, "Enjoy your time here."
"Sure thing," Peter said, "And keep laughing. I'm sure people like it when you laugh. Mari, you like it when she laughs, right?"
Mari nodded, and the red-headed child smiled slightly.
"You are nice," she said, "Mari, come on."
He watched the two of them walk down the street for a minute, feeling proud of himself. He got up, cracking his neck. Yeah, he'd do the shoes first. Girls like that could've had fun doing his shoe project, he knew it.
As he headed back to the hotel, he saw the two of them meet someone at the end of the street. Inside, ice filled his veins, but he kept walking. His mind was on overdrive, thinking about the cell phone Raven had in her backpack, of the people they needed to alert.
He wrapped his arm around her immediately when he reached her side, walking her toward the back entrance. She smiled at him, but he could see the way her eyebrow twitched. He didn't speak until they were outside on the street.
"What's wrong?" she muttered.
He swallowed.
"There were these two girls who said they were going to meet their nanny," he said in a rush, "And they walked down the street and met Kayla."
A/N: Sorry this chapter is late. We'll get back to a more regular schedule tomorrow.